Baseball: Powrozek’s gem sends streaking Burlington Central past Benet, into sectional final

Burlington Central’s Chase Powrozek had full command of his pitching arsenal on Wednesday evening, when the second-seeded Rockets battled the top-seeded Benet Academy Redwings in the Class 3A Sycamore sectional semifinals.

Powrozek fired a complete game and struck out eight batters without a walk to lead the Rockets over Benet Academy in a 5-0 shutout victory. Powrozek cruised through the opening frames and Burlington Central (25-9) backed the right-hander up with stellar defense down the stretch, as multiple players, including center fielder Brady Gilroy, made acrobatic catches to preserve the shutout.

The Rockets will face Sycamore in the sectional championship Saturday morning. It’s a rematch of last year’s sectional final won by the Spartans.

“I definitely had some nerves before the game, but I had better and better starts as the year went on and I built enough confidence in myself to go out and compete,” Powrozek said. “I had the utmost confidence in myself to battle and none of us wanted to lose and go home. I had the utmost trust in everyone in the field and I knew I just had to throw strikes and attack.”

Burlington Central claimed the early lead after first baseman A.J. Payton launched an opposite-field homer off Benet Academy left-hander and Northwestern commit Jake Rifenburg in the top of the first inning, which put the Rockets ahead 1-0. Burlington Central extended its lead in the top of the second inning, where a pair of line-drive singles from Gilroy and third baseman Zane Pollack sparked a three-run frame that pushed the Rockets ahead of the Redwings 4-0.

“Our mentality was to have a right-side approach because we were facing a lefty who threw the ball pretty hard,” said Gilroy, who had two hits for the Rockets on Wednesday. “We wanted to take the ball to the right side so we could move runners into scoring position. With his breaking ball, we had to get our approach down to where we could wait on it and drive it into the hole.”

Elliot Alecia laced a run-scoring single to center in the top of the third inning to give the Rockets a 5-0 lead over the Redwings (21-10-2), who were held to three hits in the game. Pitching with a five-run lead for most of the game, Powrozek utilized each of his pitches to keep Benet off balance. The right-hander needed just 88 pitches to complete the shutout.

“I was able to locate the fastball, the slider and the changeup,” Powrozek said. “I haven’t had all three of them in the same start all year and I finally had them today. I was able to go a little off the plate and get their hitters to chase them. When we hit that home run in the first inning, my nerves went away and when I’m on the mound with a lead, I have more confidence in myself.”

Although Burlington Central’s bats largely went quiet over the later frames, Benet made loud contact on several occasions throughout the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. But the Rockets came to play on the defensive end, as a diving catch in center from Gilroy highlighted a series of web gems that included a different diving catch in left field and an athletic snag in foul territory by the first baseman Payton, who leaned over the short outfield fence for a catch.

“We’ve had confidence around the outfield the entire year,” Gilroy said. “There hasn’t been a time where someone’s been lacking or something’s been wrong. Everyone has confidence.”

Powrozek’s eighth and final strikeout of the evening clinched Burlington Central’s win. The Rockets will compete for their first sectional title since 2012, while the Redwings will have to wait another year after seeing a six-game winning streak snapped Wednesday evening.

“Burlington Central has a great program year in and year out,” Benet Academy coach Scott Lawler said. “We knew it would be a tough game and they played with a chip on their shoulder from the beginning. We usually do a good job of recovering, but we didn’t today and they kept making play after play. Anytime it looked like we’d be able to get something going, their defense, especially their center fielder, shut us down. We have to tip our caps to them.”