Quintal led O’Fallon with arm and bat
Every year, O’Fallon baseball coach Jason Portz sets a goal of reaching the state tournament. And this year was no exception.
The Panthers fell one game short, losing 3-2 to Naperville Central June 7 in the Class 4A Bloomington Super-Sectional at Illinois Wesleyan University. But it was still another superb season for O’Fallon, which finished 25-14 overall while claiming regional and sectional titles.
“I’m very proud of our guys,” said Portz, whose squad also won the Southwestern Conference with a 12-2 mark. “I really felt we maximized our ability and we were playing the best baseball we could possibly play at that point. We played what I feel is the best baseball team in the state and had them on the brink of elimination.”
Mother Nature didn’t make the Panthers’ task any easier. The sectional final against Minooka, which started June 5 in East Peoria, was suspended due to rain and lightning (what eventually became a tornado) in the top of the third inning with Minooka leading 4-1. The game resumed last Monday afternoon at Bloomington before the super-sectional and O’Fallon ace Miles Quintal took over the pitching duties from fellow senior Alex Young. The Panthers scored three runs in the bottom of the third and added five more runs in the fifth (including a three-run homer by Quintal) en route to a 9-6 victory.
Quintal, who struck out 11 in 4 1/3 innings against Minooka, pitched four more innings against Naperville Central and departed with the score tied 1-1. But the Redhawks scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning off O’Fallon freshman reliever Jake Jarvis and were able to hold off the Panthers, who scored one run in the seventh.
“Miles Quintal put us on his shoulders and went out to the mound and kept us in the game,” Portz said. “That was as good as he’s been all season. He’s a phenomenal competitor and he does everything he can to help his team.”
Quintal finished 9-2 with a 1.29 ERA, striking out 89 batters in 81 2/3 innings while allowing 71 hits and 19 walks. He also batted .505 with four homers and 33 RBIs.
“He was our most productive offensive player,” Portz said. “We would not have gotten where we were without Miles Quintal at the plate, either.”
O’Fallon won 10 of its final 13 games.
“We were able to shore up our defense and that was the key,” said Portz, whose team placed third at state in 2009. “We moved Cal Stierwalt to center field, we moved Casey Truitt to third base and we put Rob Berger in the lineup full-time at second base. Putting Justin Busekrus in left field also helped to solidify our outfield defense.
“Robbie Berger is such an unselfish player. We DH’d for him whenever we had Miles on the mound and it never bothered him. He was nearly impeccable defensively – in his last 30 games at second base, he made only one error.”
O’Fallon’s seniors, in addition to Quintal and Berger, were Young (6-2, 4.77 ERA); Stierwalt (.301, 13 RBIs) and Seth Wild (2-3, 3.50 ERA).
“It wasn’t as big a senior group as last year, but they were equally successful,” Portz said. “We will sorely miss them and we’ll have some big shoes to fill, both in production and in character. They became part of the baseball tradition here at the high school.”
Other key players on this year’s team included juniors Truitt (.274, 11 RBIs); Matt Meadows (.370, three homers, 28 RBIs); Austin Bossart (.303, three homers, 14 RBIs); Cody Seeberger (.333, three homers, 32 RBIs) and Busekruse (.444 in 27 at-bats) and sophomore Cory Beyersdorfer (.277, nine RBIs).
The pitching staff included Jarvis (4-3, 4.30 ERA) and sophomores Sam Hopkins (0-0, 4.00 ERA) and Brent Crain (0-2, 4.71).
“Our expectations for next year will be high, but that’s not any different than what they have been in the past,” Portz said. “We’ll have the potential to exceed or match our accomplishments this year, but it all starts with pitching. We’ll be losing 17 of our 25 wins to graduation, so it will be important to find out this summer what our rotation will be.”
