Between joyous bear hugs and embraces on the Elfstrom Stadium infield, Matt Lottich, the muscle behind New Trier’s first baseball, football or basketball state champion in 100 years, tried to explain what it meant.
“It’s unthinkable,” said the Trevians’ three-sport star. “It’s the perfect cap to my high school career.
“Our school is celebrating its 100th anniversary. In that time we never won state in the big three sports. This is the first one. Unbelivable!”
Lottich had three RBI as the Trevians beat Joliet Catholic 8-6 in the title game. He doubled home two runs in the first inning and then scored himself. His sacrifice fly brought home Bryan Pritz in the third.
He manufactured a run by himself in the fifth when he walked, stole second, took third on an errant pickoff throw and scored on Matt Sharp’s sacrifice fly. Named to the all-tournament team along with teammates Sharp, Andrew Gelber and Brian Rogers, Lottich was also named tournament MVP.
Joliet Catholic (30-11) had a worthy MVP candidate itself. Second baseman Joe Van Tassel homered as the game’s first batter against lefty Peter Elmer. When New Trier (34-7) opened an 8-4 lead, Van Tassel tripled home the last two runs in the sixth.
“Coach [Mike] Napoleon told us Joliet Catholic would never quit,” Lottich said. “Those guys had a lot of heart. But Elmo (Elmer) toughened up after that first-inning homer.”
Elmer (9-0) worked 5 2/3 innings for the victory. He was replaced by Eric Willson (12-0), who got the last four outs.
“That leadoff homer kind of shook me up,” Elmer said. “My teammates helped settle me down. I knew they were pulling for me in the fifth when Joliet had men on second and third. I threw strikes and got them out.”
Napoleon, dripping wet from the coach’s traditional postgame dunking, talked about the three-sport star he calls “Itchy.”
“He’s an outfielder but I play him at first base, because we want his leadership, his emotion, his enthusiasm in the infield,” Napoleon said. “He joined us late because of basketball. So who was the first one in the batting cage and the last to leave? Itchy. He wanted to catch up.”
Last year, when New Trier finished second to St. Charles in the state tournament, Lottich went 10 for 11. This year, he had five hits in eight at-bats. Why does he excel at Elfstrom?
“Maybe it’s because good pitchers in the state tournament give me good pitches to hit,” said the Stanford-bound Lottich.
New Trier went into the title game better rested than the Hilltoppers and with deeper pitching. The Trevians needed only five innings to knock off Fremd 12-2 in Saturday’s first semifinal, while Joliet Catholic had to go two extra innings to edge Moline 4-3 in 9 later in the day.
Joliet starter Steve Nielsen, who pitched 4 1/3 innings Friday against Mahomet-Seymour, pitched the entire title game. Hilltoppers ace Mark Sopko used up the IHSA maximum of nine innings per day in the overtime victory over Moline.
New Trier’s first five hits were: doubles by Chris Busby and Lottich in the first, Tom Geary’s double in the second, Pritz’s triple in the third and Luke Sundheim’s double in the fourth.
But the inning that won the title was the two-run fifth that contained just a single by Sundheim, but two Hilltopper errors.
