Willowbrook keeps it short but sweet

After cruising to victory in the opener of Saturday's doubleheader against Addison Trail, Willowbrook's baseball team needed a spark for Game 2.

It only took an inning to find it.

The Warriors trailed after an inning in the second game before awakening for a 16-1 five-inning victory. Combined with the 10-0 five-inning win over the Blazers in the opener, it was a solid day of baseball for visiting Willowbrook in the West Suburban Gold.

Willowbrook (9-2, 5-0) will try to sweep the series from Addison Trail (1-8, 0-5) in Monday's finale in Villa Park.

"That's the first time in a while we've felt that kind of pressure during a game," Willowbrook coach Vic Wisner said of the early Game 2 deficit. "I think you need that sometimes, especially after the way we won the first game."

Behind Cam Zunkel's 2-hitter with 7 strikeouts and no walks, the Warriors pulled away in the first game by extending a 3-0 lead with 3 runs in the fourth and 4 runs in the fifth. Zunkel, Trey Jones and Kyle Martyniuk each went 3-for-4 and combined for 6 RBI.

The second game started a little differently when Addison Trail starter Nick Fugarino sent down the Warriors in order in the top of the first and the Blazers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back doubles by Mike Rybarczyk and Angelo Feola.

The Warriors, however, quickly came alive with 2 runs in the second inning and 6 runs in the third. Cam Ligocki and Kyle Ferguson came through at the bottom of the order by going 4-for-6 with 8 RBI. Chris Roycroft won on the mound.

"Obviously, 1-0 is not the way we wanted to start the game and we knew we needed to pick it up," said Ligocki, who gave his team the lead for good with a 2-run second-inning single. "I think that hit really pumped up our team and led us to a good victory."

The already-shorthanded Blazers suffered a big setback at the start of the day when Christian Grabowski, who was slated to pitch one of Saturday's games, went down with a knee injury during pregame warmups. Eight errors and 16 walks contributed to a rough day for Addison Trail.

"Any time you lose a player of that caliber, it hurts," said Blazers coach Mike Kennedy. "It's not an excuse, but it's things we need to overcome and we're not overcoming them."

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