Quintal helps Panthers win another regional

Winning regional titles has become a way of life for the O’Fallon baseball team, and the Panthers kept the tradition alive on Saturday.

O’Fallon scored five first-inning runs off Belleville East starter Steven Sotiropolous and added two more runs in the second inning en route to a 9-1 victory in the championship game of the Class 4A Belleville West Regional.

“I thought our kids really executed well at the plate,” said Panthers coach Jason Portz. “We felt we had a decent approach against Steven, who is a great pitcher. Thanks to our guys that went out and scouted and put charts together for us, we feel we had some pretty decent tendencies on him. He showed us exactly what we expected and our guys applied the game plan pitch by pitch.”

It was the sixth consecutive regional championship for O’Fallon (23-12), which will play another Southwestern Conference rival, Granite City, in a sectional semifinal at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Gordon Moore Park in Alton. Moline and Minooka will meet in the other semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at LaSalle Peru, with the sectional final slated for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at EastSide Centre in East Peoria.

“It’s a testament to our kids and a testament to our community,” Portz said. “They do everything we ask them to do and they’ve bought into our program.”

“It would be kind of a shock for us not to win one,” said O’Fallon’s Miles Quintal, who was the winning pitcher. “I’ve been a part of all of them the last four years and they’ve all been just as good. It’s a great feeling, especially this time as a senior.”

Belleville East, which finished its season at 24-6, had 19 of its last 20 games heading into Saturday. The Lancers lost both conference games to O’Fallon.

“You’ve got to tip your hat to O’Fallon,” said East coach Todd Blomberg. “We didn’t commit any errors – they went up there with a good approach and they really hit the ball around. I’m not too sure with whoever we had on the mound if they weren’t going to come out and hit the ball hard today.

“Like I told the kids, sometimes when you set your goals high and you don’t meet them, it doesn’t mean you failed. We had a very good season and we lost two games in the last two months and one of them happened to be today.”

As has been the case most of the season, O’Fallon got hitting up and down the lineup. Austin Bossart had a two-run double in the first inning and Cody Seeberger had an RBI double in the second inning.

“We definitely try to make a statement in the first inning,” said Quintal, whose team added two more runs in the fifth. “Everybody was hitting the ball and came out hyped up and ready to go.

“They kind of backed off after we put that five spot up. It seemed like they got a lot less confident at the plate and they were trying to do a little too much.”

Quintal, who entered the game with a 6-2 record and a 1.42 ERA, gave up East’s lone run in the fourth inning. He scattered seven hits, striking out eight and walking one.

“Miles knows what kind of stuff he has and he can feel more confident with his pitching in the zone rather than having to make every pitch on the edge,” Portz said. “I feel our defense did a great job today with Sam Summerlin at shortstop and Robbie Berger up the middle (at second base) and Casey Truitt made two great plays at third base.

“When Miles has the confidence that he’s a got a lead and he feels confident that the defense behind him can play, that’s a good combination.”

“They’re an elite team when he’s on the mound,” Blomberg said. “Their kids play with a different energy, they have a different mind set and they’re all very confident because of his track record. He gives them a chance to win every single game and he was very good today. He kept us off stride and he caught us looking at a bunch of pitches.”

Falling behind early against Quintal made the Lancers’ task even more difficult.

“When you know there’s a guy on the mound that doesn’t give up many runs, you know you’ve got a tough hill to climb,” Blomberg said. “We had some guys in scoring position and we couldn’t get them across. Today was just not our day.”

Six of Quintal’s strikeouts came on called third strikes.

“Today I was just trying to hit the corners,” Quintal said. “They were taking the outside fastball a couple times with two strikes, so were trying to work with that.”

“His ability to develop a slider has been big for him, but the pitch that he got guys looking on was a fastball away,” Portz said. “When he’s able to throw on the edge and not give in over the heart of the plate, he’s going to have success.”

Last season, Quintal was 11-2 with a 2.61 ERA as O’Fallon placed third in the state tournament. But he feels he’s become a better pitcher this season.

“I feel a lot more confident and I feel more confident with these guys behind me because I feel like they’re going to make a lot of plays,” Quintal said. “I know we’re going to hit.

“I’m just trying not to make my last game my worst one. I want to leave O’Fallon with the best game I can.”