By John Breech / STAFF

The Blessed Trinity baseball team had almost 90 minutes to bask in their shocking second round tournament win over Jefferson – because that’s how long the bus ride home took. With wins of 10-8 and 3-1, the two seeded Titans stunned the state’s fifth ranked Dragons Wednesday in a two-game sweep.

BT manager Andy Harlin was thrilled his team didn’t have to make the hour and a half trek back to Jefferson High School on Thursday for what would have been a potential game three, “The sweep was big,” Harlin said. “Especially with finals going on and everything, this win gives us an extra day to decompress.”

In two games turned home run derbies, the Titans proved to be the team with the most power as they scored 10 of their 13 total runs on the day on long balls. Harlin, who earned his career 300th win in the game one victory, wasn’t surprised with all his team’s homers, “We have guys that can swing the bat,” he said. “And if you keep getting good swings, then you’re going to hit the ball hard and when you hit the ball hard some are going to go out of the park.

In game one, BT starting pitcher J.D. Sabo helped his own cause with a 3-run bomb in the top of the first that put the Titans out on top early. Ross Hampton followed up Sabo’s effort with a solo shot in the second and Ricky Kleban added a dinger of his own with a 2-run shot in the sixth.

By the time the Dragons took their turn at the plate in the sixth inning, they were trailing by what appeared to be an insurmountable 10-4 deficit. However, the Titan relievers, who took over for Sabo (4 IP, 4 ER, 4 hits) in the fifth, made sure everyone in attendance got their money’s worth.

Tommy Propis surrendered a single and two walks to start the sixth, which loaded the bases with one out for the Dragons. After Propis walked in a run, Harlin decided to bring in senior southpaw Glenn Maust. Maust’s appearance was short and not so sweet for BT. The lefty walked in two batters which resulted in two more Jefferson runs. Kleban, the third pitcher of the inning for the Titans, finally stopped the bleeding with two pivotal strikeouts. The Dragons left the bases loaded in both the fifth and sixth innings.

In the seventh, the Dragons Jamie Sexton hit his second home run of the day, a solo shot to lead off the inning that cut the Titan lead to 10-8. Kleban would give up a single before retiring the next three batters for the Titan win. 

Game two turned into a pitcher’s duel, but BT still got their fair share of home runs. Sabo homered for the second straight game when he hit a two-run shot in the second inning that gave BT an early 2-1 lead. In the fourth, Titan starting pitcher Alex Cruz decided he needed an insurance run, so the junior jacked a long ball to center that gave his team a 3-1 lead.

After Cruz went over 90 pitches in the sixth, Harlin decided to put the game in the hands of his bullpen for the seventh. Cruz, whose pitching line included only giving up two hits and an unearned run, told Harlin that he could keep going. However, Harlin decided that he still had faith in his bullpen, even after they surrendered four runs late in the first game, “All year long, we’ve used a lot of different guys  [on the mound] and I have faith in all of them,” said the Coach. “We had a couple spots here and there and we struggled a little bit. But there is one thing I do know; whoever we put out there on the hill is going to compete. That’s what they did today.”

The Titans handed the ball to Jake Skole in the seventh and once again, things got interesting. After giving up a walk and a single to the first two Jefferson batters he was up against, Skole was faced with the fact that the winning run was now at the plate. Skole shook off the pressure and struck out the next three batters he faced, sealing the victory and sending the Titans to the state quarterfinals.

The Titans will head down to Adel, Ga. Tuesday for round three of the state tournament. The almost four hour bus ride will make the trip to Jefferson seem like a walk across the street. BT will face off against AA’s third ranked Cook County Hornets with the winner garnering an invite to the state Final Four.