State Champs: Western Springs 11s District Team Completes Undefeated Run

They will need no second game. They didn’t even need a sixth inning in this one.

The Western Springs 11-year-old District team entered the bottom of the fifth against Jackie Robinson West on Wednesday night having squandered a five-run lead, scoreless the last two innings and locked in an 8-8 tie. Before the inning was over, they would be the Illinois state champions.

Tearing off hit after walk after hit, the team batted 14 times and scored 10 runs in the fifth inning alone, at least one from every spot in the lineup. When catcher Owen Waunn finally laced a triple down the right-field line that scored three runs, only the first two counted—the game had already been won 18-8 by mercy rule—and the wild celebration was on.

“When we were going into [the bottom of the fifth], most of the guys were down,” Waunn said—the team had seen a hard-won 8-3 lead evaporate in the top of the fourth. “But once we starting hitting the ball and keeping our heads up, that’s where everyone’s spirits just started going up and up and everyone’s just like, ‘oh, yes, we all want hits!’”

They got them.

Graham Sands led off with a ground-ball single and Dominic Fera drew a walk, each advancing on a wild pitch. After a strikeout, Nick Panos walked to load the bases, Waunn singled in two and went to second on an error, and Thomas Remijas singled in two more.

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Then the floodgates really opened: an Andrew Gatland infield single, a Nolan Niego double down the right-field line, an Eric Steensma single up the middle and, following a pop-out, a Fera single and walks to Danny Feldmeier and Panos before Waunn’s coup de grace triple.

Just like that: 10 runs, state champs, completing an undefeated run through and , and giving Western Springs its first 11s state title since 2006 (and first state title in any age since 2007.)

“It would have been very easy to give up or get down when [JRW] tied it up 8-8, but they bounced right back,” said team manager Bob Waunn. “I’m just so proud of them. They just never give up, and they never have… They just keep building on and improving. It was a magical run.”

JRW leapt out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Western Springs answered back after getting a huge break when a JRW fielder dropped a Gatland fly ball with two outs, and Niego capitalized with a two-run single. Then, to open the bottom of the second, right fielder Fera (batting eighth) smashed a 1-1 pitch over the left-field fence for the first four-bagger of his life to tie it at 3-3.

“I hit it, and I thought it was just going to be a regular fly ball—and when I put my head up, it was over the fence,” Fera said. “It was amazing. I can’t explain it. So cool.”

Still, the inning ground to a seeming halt after a disputed double play left Western Springs with two outs and nobody on. But walks to Waunn and Remijas and a Gatland single loaded the bases, a Niego grounder snuck past the JRW first baseman for one RBI, Steensma ripped a double for two more and Sands singled in another two for a crushing two-out rally to open an 8-3 lead.

It would be the first of two times the team would bat around the order that night.

Gatland threw for 4 1/3 innings, giving up eight runs, all earned. Steensma relieved him in the fifth to face two batters, working consecutive infield pop-outs to escape a first-and-second jam with one out.

As they have all season, the team played solid defense, error-free. They simply outslugged the powerful JRW team (who they also on Monday to advance to the championship.)

“I knew that we could play state from the beginning the season, the first practice,” said shortstop Thomas Remijas, whose contribution included the first home run of his life: a grand slam in an earlier state-tournament game. “The state tournament was really fun, and it’s great being so close to home.”

Indeed, from Peirce Park in Hinsdale where the team celebrated their triumph under the lights, the water tower is clearly visible over the right-field fence.

This week, a new title banner will hang in its shadow—on Western Springs soil, where it belongs.

Your 11-year-old Western Springs District team and Illinois state champs are Daniel Feldmeier, Dominic Fera, Andrew Gatland, Jack Hammond, Sam Hojnar, Nolan Niego, Nick Panos, Thomas Remijas, Stone Saloum, Graham Sands, Eric Steensma and Owen Waunn, with manager Bob Waunn and coaches Dean Panos and Jon Remijas.