Troy Trojans Recount Nail-Biter Victory that Made Them State Champs

Down 7-2 after the first inning of the State Championship, Troy Middle School baseball players and their fans thought the team's march to the top had lost its steam.

That the Trojans would come back in extra innings to take the Illinois Elementary School Association Class 3A state title game Saturday against the Greenville Rockets was hard to imagine. That the game would end up shattering 10 IESA class records and setting three all-time records? Unfathomable.

But that's exactly what happened.

Players, parents and coaches relived the highlights of the 19-11 championship game during a victory celebration at a school assembly Tuesday. On this warm, sunny afternoon, the cheerleaders were tumbling. The flags were twirling. The band was playing. The parents were beaming.

And a mountainous, shiny trophy took center stage in the gymnasium.

"Now that we're home, we can say we took first place in the state – and there's only one team in our division that can say that," Coach Tom Knapczyk said to a roaring crowd.

It was all a world away from that chilly, suspenseful evening just a few nights earlier.

 It was 10:30 p.m. Saturday. It was cold in East Peoria. Everyone was tired. The game started nearly two hours late. The first pitch of the semifinals game they played at noon that same day seemed like weeks ago. And the Trojans were trailing.

"When we were down so much after that first inning, I was really down," pitcher, outfielder and first-baseman Rob Talarico said.

Talarico, 13, pitched all seven innings in the final game and hit a double-run homer in that afternoon's two-run semifinal win over Mt. Zion.

"My hopes were dying," he said. "I didn't think we could come back from that. I started to give up on the game."

At the end of the fifth inning, Troy was still down by 6.

But first-baseman Jake Suca took to heart the "never-give-up" message their young coach had drilled into their heads all season.

"I thought all along we'd come back," said Suca, a 13-year-old eighth-grader. "I could see we were going to going to have to come up with some big plays."

Suca's dad Bill barely made it through the ensuing innings. By the time the Trojans inched back with three runs in the sixth inning and another three in the seventh to tie the game, parents sitting near Bill Suca said they feared he was "about to have a heart attack."

"As soon as they tied it up, I had a feeling of the reality that we could actually win," Bill Suca said at the victory assembly Tuesday.

"It was a see-saw game," he said. "You were on the edge of the bleacher waiting to see what would happen next."

What transpired in the two extra innings next seemed like a true miracle, parents agreed.

Alex Davis batted one off the fence and scored two big runs.

"Once they started hitting, they just kept hitting and hitting and hitting," parent Deza McGuire said.

"It was like they couldn't stop."

Her son Griffin McGuire was the chief pitcher and also a third baseman.

This year's championship was the school's first baseball title since 1990. And it wasn't just any win.

The game set 10 new class records and three all-time records.

"I think it was the best baseball game I ever saw," Bill Suca said.

Here's a list of the Class 3A IESA baseball records set in the state championship game between the Troy Trojans and the Greenville Rockets:

** Most runs by the winning team: 19

** Most runs by a losing team in a game: 11

** Most runs in a championship game by the losing team: 11

** Most runs by two teams in one game: 30

** Most runs by two teams in the title game by two teams: 30

** Most hits in the championship game: 21 by Troy

** Most runs batted in in a championship game: 19 by Troy

** Most extra base hits in the championship game: 7 by Troy

** Most extra base hits in a playoff game: 7 by Troy

** Most total bases in a playoff game: 28

** Most total bases in a championship game: 28

All-time records in IESA baseball history since 1955:

** The total 30 runs scored by both teams in the championship game

 ** Most runs by a winner in a championship game

 ** Most runs by the losing team in a title game