Walther Lutheran and Westminster Christian will attempt to prove the good of wood at the Class A state baseball tournament this weekend at Silver Cross Field in Joliet.
The two teams’ conference, the Private League, was one of five that participated in the IHSA’s wood-bat experiment in all conference games.
Walther (27-2), which faces fellow wood-bat team Olney East Richland (25-13) Friday night, eked out four two-out hits for two seventh-inning runs in its 5-4 supersectional comeback decision over Herscher, with Fred Rose getting the game-tying hit on a topper that died in the grass.
“I wasn’t a big fan of [wood bats],” Rose said. “But using them really taught you a lot more about baseball. We’ve been playing small ball.”
Westminster of Elgin (25-13) has come a long way since suffering Illinois’ second-worst defeat in history, a 51-0 rout at the hands of Hampshire in 1999.
These Warriors feature Ben Palmer (10-2), one of the area’s best junior pitchers, who faces Pinckneyville (32-6) in the 4 p.m. quarterfinal.
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dsurico@tribune.com
