Maine West shows Wright way to battle for victory

Everything was hardly alright for Maine West junior right-hander Josh Wright on Tuesday.

Wright was in a battle with his control to keep his team in the Central Suburban North baseball game with visiting Deerfield in Des Plaines.

But Wright left after six innings as a winner as Maine West (9-6, 3-1) erupted for 5 runs in the fifth inning of an 8-2 victory.

"I knew we were going to fight the whole way," said Maine West senior center fielder Tommy Ross. "We were waiting for one guy to step up."

Actually, a bunch of Maine West players did as it rallied from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits for its fourth straight win. Ross, the fourth-year varsity player headed to North Central College, delivered the key shot.

Ross' second double of the game on an 0-1 curveball from Josh Nevers scored 3 runs and put Maine West up 5-2 in the fifth.

"I had a feeling he was going with the curveball because he liked to throw that pitch all day," Ross said of his drive to deep left field off Nevers, who is headed to Illinois-Chicago as an outfielder. "Right when I saw the curve with his arm slot my eyes got big. I wanted to make sure I put the ball in play hard."

Two batters later, C.J. Eisenberg did the same over the left-field fence for a 7-2 lead.

"Usually we're a team that kind of breaks open in the end," Wright said. "I felt confident, especially with the score tied."

It wasn't easy for Wright to keep it that way even though he allowed only 3 hits. He threw 114 pitches, had 4 strikeouts and only 1 of the 5 walks he issued scored.

Deerfield (8-7, 1-3) scored in the first on Matt Glassman's two-out RBI single and in the third on Andrew Goldstick's triple and a passed ball.

"It was just nerves," Wright said after also hitting a batter. "But it was fun to get out here and pitch."

Maine West coach Joe Pederson was about to end his day after he walked Nevers to start the fifth and fell behind 3-0 to Glassman. But Wright rebounded with a groundout, strikeout and fly out.

"He didn't have his best game today but he battled through it and hit his spots when he had to," Pederson said after Wright stranded four runners in scoring position and seven overall. "To the kid's credit, at 3-0 he battled back out of that situation and got ahead and we picked him up."

Maine West made the most of its few early chances as sophomore Ryan Ross doubled with two out in the second and scored on Arnold Galindo's single. Ross drove in the tying run with a fourth-inning groundout.

Sophomore James Duckman started the fifth with a line single to center and a wild throw by the catcher on Alex Hernandez's sacrifice put runners at second and third. Connor Skoczynski battled for a full-count walk to set the stage for Tommy Ross and Eisenberg.

Hernandez added an RBI single in the sixth and Ricky Cabral finished it off with a hitless seventh.

"We need to minimize our mental mistakes if we want to get to where we want to be," Pederson said. "But the kids play hard and don't give up and don't quit. They're going to come out and play hard."

St. Viator 12, BG 2 (5 inn.): Brendan King went 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI as the top eight hitters in the St. Viator (8-4) lineup drove in a run in the five-inning nonconference win.

Jack Czeszewski and David Alameda had 2 hits and an RBI for the Lions. Robert Romano (3-0) went 4 innings for the win.

Ryan Nisbet went 2-for-3 with a double for Buffalo Grove (8-7).

Leyden 12, Proviso East 0 (5 inn.): Steve Gargula had 6 strikeouts and allowed 2 hits in 4 innings in his first varsity start as Leyden (12-5, 6-3) won its sixth straight in the five-inning West Suburban Gold game in Maywood.

John Marino hit a grand slam in the fourth, Carlos Olavarria homered, Eli Perez went 3-for-3 and Tyler Lenon went 2-for-2 for the Eagles.