STERLING — Disaster struck in the bottom of the sixth inning on Monday, when the Rochelle Hub varsity baseball team was just six outs away from an IHSA 3A Regional Quarterfinal win.

Rochelle held a 3-1 lead over Sterling after five-and-a-half frames, with the Hubs taking a two-run lead after RBI doubles from freshman Brody Bruns and junior Carson Lewis. Bruns also delivered a strong outing on the pitcher’s mound for the Hubs, throwing five innings while holding the Golden Warriors to one unearned run on four hits and adding one strikeout.

But a fielding error and a pitching change created trouble for Rochelle in the bottom of the sixth inning, where Sterling drew a pair of walks and two hit-by-pitches to tie the game before jumping ahead on a sacrifice fly to center field. With two outs in the frame, the Hubs needed just one more to get off the field, but the inning soon fell apart, as Sterling capitalized on another Rochelle error while drawing two more walks and hitting two singles to record a nine-run frame.

The explosive inning was more than enough for the seventh-seeded Golden Warriors, who escaped a jam in the top of the seventh inning to hand the ninth-seeded Hubs a 10-3 loss. Rochelle finishes the season with a 7-21 overall record and an 0-14 record in the Interstate 8.

“We always preach to our kids about taking things one pitch at a time and winning the next pitch,” head coach Jarrod Reynolds said. “Things just snowballed on us there. They only had two hits in that inning and it was really unfortunate that the free bases were what led to our demise. We have to get better. We played a tough schedule, but we only won seven games and we have work to do. We need to throw harder, hit the ball harder and get in the weight room.”

Bruns and the Hubs wiggled out of two bases-loaded situations to stay in the game on Monday. Sterling loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the third inning, but the freshman lefty retired three consecutive batters to flee the jam. The Golden Warriors threatened again in the bottom of the fifth inning, where they loaded the bases with two outs before Bruns struck out Miles Nawrocki to end the frame. Rochelle held Sterling to just six hits in the regional game.

“Brody’s really impressive and he’s going to be so good considering that he’s only a freshman,” Reynolds said. “I can’t say enough about him and he’s been our best pitcher all year. I’m really excited to see how good he’s going to be over the next three years. I thought he did his job.”

The Golden Warriors led 1-0 after Bryce Hartman’s RBI single in the bottom of the second inning. The Hubs answered during the top of the fourth inning, where Lewis smacked a one-out single and scored on an RBI double from junior Ethan Goodwin, who belted a ball deep into left-center field. Back-to-back doubles from Bruns and sophomore Brode Metzger, who went 3-for-4 on Monday evening, sparked Rochelle’s two-run rally in the top of the fifth inning. 

The Hubs recorded 10 hits in the loss. Bruns went 2-for-3 and reached base three times, while Lewis also went 2-for-3 and reached base three times. Junior Ryan Senne singled twice.