CHAMPS: Lyons Baseball Complete Incredible Title Run

Connor Cuff conjured up the perfect ending to a perfect high school career Saturday night.

The Lyons Township senior dominated on the mound and at the plate, scattering five hits in a complete-game effort against the state’s most potent offense while driving in four runs to lead the Lions to the Class 4A state championship with an 8-3 victory over top-ranked Providence at Silver Cross Field in Joliet.

It is the third state baseball title in school history. LT also won in 1967 and 2003. The Lions have now won nine state trophies, four of which have come in the last 11 seasons under coach George Ushela.

“At the beginning of the season I didn’t even want to think about ending on a loss,” Cuff said. “It’s amazing that it didn’t.”

Cuff’s performance was a fitting ending to a career that saw him post a 19-0 record over two seasons, including 11-0 with a 1.22 earned-run average this spring. His 96-pitch outing against Providence – a team that has seven Division I players in its starting lineup alone – was remarkable.

The Celtics (37-4) came into the contest averaging 9.2 runs per game and had blown out Prospect 9-1 in the semifinals. Notre Dame-bound leadoff hitter Kevin DeFilippis and Indiana signee Sam Travis combined to go 4-for-7 with two runs batted in and two runs scored, but the rest of the lineup was 1-for-18.

“I had my stuff and that’s what you need against guys of that caliber,” said Cuff, who walked two and hit one batter while striking out six. “I wanted to make sure I challenged them because walks never lead anywhere, but I knew I had to be careful of the best hitting team in the state. They’ve had such success that I knew they’d be gunning right away and I had to try to shut them down somehow.”

The Celtics came out swinging at a lot of first pitches and Travis demonstrated his awesome power by belting a hanging curve far over the left field fence for his 17th home run of the season to put Providence up 1-0 in the first inning.

“First bad pitch of the day and he definitely took advantage of it,” Cuff said.

There weren’t many more bad pitches from Cuff, who shook off the home run and retired 12 of the next 15 batters, including eight straight at one point, giving his teammates a big boost of confidence.

“When you have a guy like that on the mound you just feel like you’re going to win no matter what,” LT first baseman Brian Rodemoyer said. “And especially when you’ve got hitting. When you’ve got great hitting, great pitching, it’s usually a recipe for success. With Connor, he hasn’t lost and it’s incredible to think about it.”

The Lions (37-4), who broke the school record for victories, wasted no time in seizing control, pounding Providence starter Brandon Magallones, a Northwestern signee, for eight hits in two-plus innings.

The first three LT hitters – Spencer Mahoney, Steve Heilenbach and Rodemoyer – greeted Magallones (8-3) with singles. Rodemoyer’s hit was bobbled by Providence left fielder Dominic Olszta, allowing Mahoney and Heilenbach to score and Rodemoyer to go to second. Two outs later, Cuff drove courtesy runner Evan Booth with a sacrifice fly to give the Lions a 3-1 lead.

LT sent Magallones to the showers in the third as they put the first six hitters on base. Rodemoyer, who along with Mahoney reached base four times on two hits and two walks, led off with a double, went to third on a single by Tom Walsh and scored on Cuff’s two-run double to right to make it 5-1.

“I love hitting,” said Cuff, who batted .393 with eight homers and 40 RBI this year. “I struggled the past three games and it was good that I could help myself out and the team today, just any way to get it done.”

Cuff was thrown out at third trying to stretch his double into a triple, but the Lions loaded the bases on a single by Keith Lehmann and walks to Mike Pett and Brian Kelley. Providence reliever Dan Wetzel avoided further damage thanks to a double play when Dan Zehe flied out to left and Lehmann was thrown out at the plate.

The Lions again put the first three runners on in the fourth but scored just once, that coming when Mahoney scored on a wild pitch with Walsh at the plate. Walsh thought he had hit a sacrifice fly but instead hit into a double play when the umpires, on a Providence appeal, ruled Heilenbach had left third base too soon.

Ushela argued the call, throwing his hat to the ground to no avail, but it didn’t bother Cuff, who recalled he was “pretty mediocre” as a freshman and sophomore before hard work allowed his career to blossom.

“He might be being hard on himself (with that assessment),” Ushela said of Cuff, who will pitch at Penn. “He goes after guys. He pitches aggressive. He’s got that bulldog mentality. I think he always had that mentality but it doesn’t always shine at the lower levels.”

It shined against Providence, which had one good chance to get back in the game in the sixth. DeFilippis and Central Michigan recruit Joe Houlihan singled and Travis followed with a run scoring double for his 75th RBI, the second-highest single-season total in state history. Cuff struck out Dan Potempa before walking Indiana-bound Collin McEnery to load the bases with one out.

An RBI groundout by Zak Kutsulis cut the gap to 6-3 and Olszta missed a game-tying three-run homer by about two feet when he belted a changeup just foul down the left-field line. On the next pitch, Cuff struck him out with a curveball.

“We saw them the game before against Prospect and we picked up some strategies,” Cuff said. “They have a pretty lefty-dominated lineup and I like to work my changeup a lot. It drops away from lefties so that was definitely my best pitch today.”

While Cuff knew he was facing one of the best lineups ever fielded by an Illinois high school team, he said he wasn’t nervous.

“It’s just kind of the same thing every day. If you make a routine of it, it just feels the same as a regular season game,” Cuff said. “I prepared by just visualizing the night before and trying to remember that it’s just a game.”

After the Lions tacked on two runs in the bottom of the sixth, with Cuff driving in the last one with a sacrifice fly, the Celtics went down in order in the seventh, with the Illinois State-bound Rodemoyer catching a pop-up by DeFilippis for the final out.

“It’s incredible,” Rodemoyer said. “This has been our goal since the beginning. We came in in March and knew what we had to do. We knew we had a great bunch, mostly seniors starting, and we really wanted to come out with this and end our careers with this victory.

“(There is) not a better game and not a better ending for us. We wanted to show them who was No. 1 and we showed them tonight.”

The Lions had 16 seniors on their roster. Though they lack the pedigree of the Celtics – only Cuff, Rodemoyer and Mahoney (Valparaiso) will play Division I ball – they did something special.

“We do a lot of mental training and we also try to keep a perspective with them,” said Ushela, whose team did not lose back-to-back games all season. “This is special but it doesn’t define who they are. Their character defines who they are. (The Celtics), they’re not defined by this loss. They’re a good team.

“It’s a special moment. It’s a forever memory for these guys.”

And what did Cuff, a converted catcher, learn from what he did on the mound?

“If you have a desire to do something then it’s tough to stop you,” he said. “(The Celtics) have been No. 1 all year and we wanted a chance at it, so we got it and took advantage of it.”