The Saint Patrick Shamrocks claimed their first IHSA Regional Championship in 25 years when they defeated Lane Tech 5-4 in the championship game of the Chicago (Lane) Regional. The Shamrocks came from behind twice as Mike Bolger earned the win with four innings of scoreless relief, and Steve Yopchick hit a three-run homer in the title game for the Shamrocks.

The Shamrocks opened with a 5-3 win over Gordon Tech. Steve Yopchick threw a complete game, allowing only three hits and one earned run with 11 strikeouts. The Rams got out on top with an unearned run in the top of the first. Mike Giller answered for the Shamrocks with a two-run homerun to left-center field in the bottom of the first. Chris Meza’s solo homer in the second made it 3-1 Shamrocks. Gordon cut the lead to 3-2 with another unearned run in the third. The Shamrocks got an unearned run of their own in the bottom of the third, then Yopchick drove in Noah Reyes with a double down the right field line to make it 5-2 Shamrocks after four innings. The game remained that way until the seventh. With one out in the seventh Yopchick gave up a homerun, then a single brought the tying run to the plate. Yopchick bore down to strike out the next hitter, then ended the game on a flyball that Reyes hauled in on the warning track in left field.

In the championship game, Lane got out to an early 3-0 lead against Shamrock starter Mike Kotz. Saint Patrick tied the game in the top of the third on Yopchick’s three-run home run to dead center field. Lane got back on top 4-3, but Bolger came on in relief to shut the door the rest of the way. Saint Patrick escaped from two potential big innings on double play balls.

The Shamrocks tied and then won the game with a pair of two-out rallies. With two outs in the fifth, Shamrock first baseman Dan O’Donnell blooped a double down the left field line. O’Donnell stole third and scored on Nick Luburich’s single to center field to knot the game at four. With two outs in the sixth, right fielder Kevin Cahill ripped a ball down the third base line that went off the glove of the diving Indian third baseman and out of play for a ground rule double. Mike Mockler came on to pinch-run for Cahill, and Chris Lehr knocked him in with the game-winning run on a sharp single to left.

Saint Patrick will take on Fenwick in the Oak Park (Fenwick) Sectional on Thursday June 1 at 4:00pm. The winner of that game will face the winner of the Clemente versus Oak Park-River Forest game for the sectional championship on Saturday.