For the better part of two seasons, pitcher Kobe Mounivong and his young Larkin teammates battled and learned through losses.
The Royals came of age Monday with a team comprised largely of juniors.
Mounivong, a junior left-hander, went 6 2/3 innings for the win and juniors Cy Kerber and Andy Bonnot produced huge RBIs in Larkin’s 7-5 comeback victory over Dundee-Crown in first-round action of the Class 4A Jacobs Regional.
“It was really just keeping my composure,” Mounivong said. “The last couple of games, getting down, I’ve lost my composure.
“But my teammates really talked to me about don’t let a couple runs get you down. The runs did hurt, but it didn’t get me down. It fired me up to throw better. After I got command after one bad inning, it was all working again.”
After Mounivong refused to wilt, 10th-seeded Larkin (13-17) overcame a 5-1 deficit with a five-run sixth inning against eighth-seeded Dundee-Crown (14-18).
The Royals advanced to a 4:30 Wednesday semifinal game against second-seeded Barrington.
Mounivong stuck out seven and allowed seven hits and four earned runs as the Royals snapped a five-game losing streak.
“I think I had more command of the change-up than curve, which really helped me,” Mounivong said. “Once I got up in the count 0-2, 1-2, they were fanning at it.”
Larkin’s offense roared back with runs on a wild pitch, an RBI single from Anthony Cervantes, two RBIs on a game-tying double from Bonnot and the go-ahead single by Kerber.
“We don’t die,” Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. “We’ve been down before more than that and come back and won, so we weren’t in panic mode. It’s all these juniors.”
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Kerber’s hit almost didn’t happen.
“I took a step back and I tried to call timeout and didn’t get the time,” Kerber said. “So I flipped it over the second baseman’s head. Big run.”
The Royals added another run for insurance in the seventh on an error.
Mounivong used his entire pitch count in the seventh before reliever Josh Frazier came on to get Northern Illinois recruit Erik Hedmark on a game-ending grounder to second for the save.
“I’ll be honest, we felt a little disrespected,” Esterino said. “We didn’t see their ace. He’s a good pitcher … We hear everything about how they play in such a tough conference. We don’t play in the Little Sisters of the Poor Conference, either.”
Hedmark (4-4) is the Chargers’ ace, but Dundee-Crown coach Matt Mueller went instead with Connor Ryan (4-2).
“He could have pitched,” Mueller said of Hedmark. “That was my decision. I threw Connor and I thought he did a good job.”
Ryan had it under control until the sixth, but was driven from the mound by Larkin’s rally. Reliever Brett Buske ended up taking the loss.
Kerber had three hits for Larkin, while Mounivong, Cervantes, Jackson Reuter and Max Anderson each had two.
Twitter @genechamberlai2