Nazareth top Grayslake Central to repeat as Illinois Class 3A baseball champions

JOLIET, Ill. – As you'd expect from a professional ballpark, Duly Health & Care Field – the home of the Frontier League's Joliet Slammers – has some generous dimensions.

But they couldn't contain the blast Nazareth's David Cox hit with one out in the sixth inning of Saturday's Illinois Class 3A final.

The ball sailed over the left-field fence toward the picnic pavilion another 25-30 feet away for a solo homer.

It was the exclamation point on the Roadrunners' 7-2 win over Grayslake Central for their second consecutive 3A championship.

"It was the best feeling in the world," said Cox, a junior third baseman and pitcher. "I've always dreamed of that and now it's finally happened. It's a great way to finally end the state title game."

Cooper Malamazian, who pitched two shutout innings to finish the combined six-hitter and had the defensive play of the game, actually had a pretty good way to put a bow on the Roadrunners' repeat.

After inducing a game-ending double play, Malamazian flung his hat far into the air to kick off the Nazareth celebration.

"I told coach (Lee Milano), 'I want to close this game,'" Malamazian said. "No matter what, I'm closing this down. And last year when we won, I had a pretty impressive (cap) throw after the game ended too. I threw it pretty high. (I thought), 'I gotta beat last year. Can't be boring and not throw it as high as last year.'"

Boring is not the word you'd likely associate with this season's Roadrunners. Besides being defending state champs, they have two former big leaguers on their coaching staff – Hall of Famer Jim Thome, whose freshman son Landon starts at second base and hit well over .300, and Michael Bowden.

And Nazareth started the season 18-0, extending the seventh longest winning streak in IHSA history to 35 games.

But, according to Malamazian and coach Lee Milano, the Roadrunners were able to tune out all the noise and focus on the task at hand.

"Definitely more pressure on us from (being) last year's state champions," Malamazian said. "But this team's resilient. We can do anything we want to do. Not only are we talented, but we're also close together. Our bond is so strong we can attack anything we want to."

"We never hid from the elephant in the room," Milano said. "We never worried about other people's expectations. ... At the end of the year, our hope was to be out here on the second Saturday in June playing for the state title. It worked out."

Malamazian played a big role in that. He was 1-for-3 with a walk and had a web gem. With two Grayslake Central runners on and one out in the fourth inning, he leaped high to grab Cal Hanson's liner bound for left-center and threw to first for the inning-ending double play.

"As a freshman, i said Cooper would walk on as one of the best shortstops we've ever had," Milano said. "And that's not an insult to anybody we've had come through here. Cooper is a different player, he is a money player."

Nazareth (34-6) opened a 3-0 lead in the second inning after the first two hitters were retired. Collin Roche had an RBI single and later scored on a wild pitch. The third run came home on a bases-loaded walk to Lucas Smith.

The Roadrunners made it 6-0 in the fourth, when Nick Drtina doubled home two runs and winning pitcher Finn O'Meara drove in a run with an infield hit.

Grayslake Central (33-8) cut the deficit to 6-2 with single runs in the fifth and sixth before Cox's blast.

"We talked about getting punched in the gut and responding, not reacting," Milano said. "I give (Grayslake Central) a lot of credit. But our kids battled, our kids are pretty battle-tested. We've been here, we've been through it."

And now they've won it again.

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