The Road to Joliet: Red-hot Freeburg steamrolls Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Despite a current record that's now nine games under the .500 mark, Freeburg Community High School's baseball team finfs itself in the Sweet 16 of Class 2A.
The Midgets short-gamed Pinckneyville Thursday night 11-1 in the semfinals of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class sectiona at Alton's Gordon Moore Park.
Now 14-23 overall, Freeburg plays Greenville (31-7) in the decisive game Saturday morning. Greenville topped Alton Marquette 10-0 in the first semifinal.
"We came out and didn't make adjustments tonight unfortunately," Panther coach Alan Engelhardt said. "They threw a very soft tosser at us and we just kept reaching for the ball and hitting weak ground-outs."
Aex Fricke had four hits, including two home runs, to lead Freeburg's 17-hit attack.The Midgets also had a round tripper from Tyler Adamson and four safeties by Brandon Gwinn.Drake Delong doubled twice and notched two RBI.
Nick McGraw tossed a four-hitter for Freeburg. Landon Chandler, Adam Barczewski, C.J. Opp and Justin Bumann managed the Panther hits with Barczewski doubling in the lone run as the Panthers took a brief 1-0 lead.
Opp (7-3) and Noah Hepp handled the mound chorss fot PCHS, which ended the spring at 18-15.
"On the mound we had success when we hit spots, but they made us pay every time we didn't," Engelhardt said of the red hot Midgets.
Engelhardt's young Panthers notched the third regional title in four years-and just the fifth overall for PCHS-while weathering some tough times.
"I am proud of the guys for battling through some adversity this season, albeit mostly self inflicted, and coming away with a regional championship and a winning record in conference play," he said.
" We will miss our seniors, it has been fun to watch them improve over their four years, but we also look hopefully to the future as we return 16 of our 19 letter winners for next year.:
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