JOLIET – The Edwardsville Tigers had been waiting a long time for Kayden Jennings to hit his first career home run.
On the 179th at-bat of his career, the wait ended as Jennings’ first home run couldn’t have come at a better time.
Jennings hit a three-run home run during a five-run first inning for the defending state champion Tigers on the way to a 7-3 victory over the York Dukes in the Class 4A state semifinals on Friday at Duly Health & Care Field in Joliet.
“I’ve never felt anything like it,” said Jennings, who entered the game hitting .333 with 26 RBI. “The guys have been teasing me and asking me where my home run was.”
Jennings went 2 for 3 with a home run and four RBI. It was the most RBI by a Tiger in a state tournament game since Matt Evers drove in five in a Class AA state quarterfinal win over Oak Park-River Forest in 1998.
“(Jennings) put that thump on the ball and we’ve been waiting on that for a while,” EHS coach Tim Funkhouser said with a smile. “He saved it for a big moment there.”
Edwardsville, now 32-9, will play Brother Rice (26-15) in the state championship game at approximately 5:30 p.m. Saturday. It is a rematch of last year’s state semifinal won by the Tigers 7-4.
EHS will be looking to become the first back-to-back state champion in Illinois since Providence Catholic won three straight from 2014-16.
The state championship game appearance for Edwardsville will be its fourth in Class 4A, which ties Providence Catholic, and state-record eighth overall. It will also be the state-record fifth state championship game for Funkhouser, who won his 802nd career game Friday.
“This feels great. Our guys played extremely well,” said Funkhouser, who owns two of the program’s four state championships with wins in 2019 and 2022. EHS also won Class AA state championships in 1990 and 1998.
York, now 25-14-1, will play in the third-place game at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Thanks to a big first inning, Edwardsville’s 18th trip to the state tournament will end like its last three with a spot in the championship game.
The Tigers sent eight hitters to plate against York starting pitcher Tommy VanDaff in the first and needed just two hits to break the game open early, as they were issued three walks and were hit by a pitch. All three walked batters came around to score.
Joe Chiaorodo drew an eight-pitch walk before stealing second on the first pitch of Riley Iffrig’s at-bat. With one out, Caeleb Copeland drove the first pitch he saw into left-center for an RBI double and a 1-0 lead.
“I went with my lefty approach and took it to left-center. I was able to execute on a high-and-away fastball in the zone. That was a big hit to get it going,” Copeland said.
Not done, after Andrew Hendrickson worked a walk, he broke for second to draw a pickoff throw and Copeland raced home just ahead of the throw to make it 2-0 “on a broken play.”
Lucas Huebner drew the third walk of the inning and Jennings quickly made York pay with a long three-run home run over the wall in left field to extend the lead to 5-0.
“It was one of those ones where you didn’t even feel it come off the bat. I thought it was gone at first but then I looked over and saw it bounce,” Jennings said.
It marked the third straight game EHS scored in the first and the five runs matched its largest in an inning in a state tournament game since the seventh inning of a 14-4 win over Oak Park-River Forest in 1998.
“We came out hot early just taking great at-bats,” Funkhouser said.
Prior to Friday, York had surrendered just five runs in the postseason.
“You hope you can get out of that first inning without them putting anything help on the board. It just didn’t happen for us. You go down 5-0 to the defending state champs and that makes it difficult. Our kids still battled and put the ball in play,” York coach Dave Kalal said. “Giving up five in that first, you are kind of shell-shocked after coming off the field.”
VanDaff, who dropped to 5-5, exited after walking Hendrickson to start the third. The left-handed Spring Hill College recruit went two-plus innings and allowed five runs on two hits with five walks, two hit by pitches and two strikeouts in a 72-pitch outing.
York cut into the deficit in the fourth with Paul Reedy’s two-out RBI single into right making it 5-1. The Dukes had the bases loaded but Chiarodo got out of the jam with his fourth strikeout of the game and second of the inning.
A Chiarodo strikeout also ended a threat in the fifth with York leaving two runners on base after a pair of walks.
Edwardsville went up 6-1 in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Hendrickson to score Drew Frese, who was pinch-running for Iffrig after a leadoff single. A walk to Copeland and balk followed Iffrig’s leadoff hit. Before the inning was over, Jennings lifted an RBI single into left for the 7-1 lead.
“We started taking better at-bats off the reliever later in the game,” Funkhouser said.
York made it 7-3 in the seventh with two bases-loaded walks. Hendrickson came on and struck out the only batter he faced on four pitches to end the game and earn the save.
The Tigers were outhit 7-5, but it was more than enough offense for Chiarodo to work with on the mound.
Chiarodo improved to 6-2, including 2-0 in the postseason, after allowing one run on five hits with eight strikeouts and four walks in 5 1/3 innings. He threw 63 of his 104 pitches for strikes.
“A lot of things were working out there today. It felt good. I was really excited to go out there and attack the zone,” Chiarodo said.
A five-run first inning from his offense certainly helped.
Chiarodo also received plenty of help from his defense. Copeland made a diving catch in right field to start the second and then held onto a fly out while falling over to end the inning. Jennings ranged to his right in the third and made a backhanded play for an out.