Howicz, Waubonsie Valley scamper past South Elgin

Waubonsie Valley senior Garret Howicz knew when to make his break for the plate.

With Tuesday's baseball game at fellow Upstate Eight Valley power South Elgin tied in the top of the eighth inning, Howicz was on third base when pinch runner Jacob Hennessy purposefully got caught in a pickle between first and second.

South Elgin pitcher Max Keough immediately stepped off the rubber. As soon as he turned his back and began taking strides toward Hennessy, Howicz made his mad dash for the dish. He scored the winning run in a 2-1 victory without a throw before the Storm infielders could tag Hennessy for the third out.

"I've never practiced that play as a baserunner, but I always practice it as a fielder," said Howicz, Waubonsie Valley's shortstop. "I know as a fielder that some or our pitchers in practice will sometimes forget about the runner at third and turn their back. When (Keough) stepped off the rubber he didn't even check or acknowledge me, so I just started running when he started running at Jacob."

"Obviously, we've got some things to go over, including me," said Keough (2-1).

Relief pitcher Ryan Jones (1-0) then closed out the extra-inning win for Waubonsie Valley (8-2, 4-0) by striking out South Elgin catcher Mitch Butvilas looking at a fastball with runners on second and third.

Jones said he understood why Butvilas was unhappy with the called strike.

"I was trying to locate it a little bit off the plate and I did, and the umpire gave me the call," said Jones, who did not pitch last season. "He was giving me the outside so I kept throwing it out there."

The loss was the first of the year for South Elgin (6-1, 3-1), thereby snapping a 7-game win streak dating back to the 2014 Class 4A third-place game.

Keough pitched brilliantly. The only other run he allowed was a clean first-inning single by Waubonsie Valley starting pitcher Brandon Petersen. Keough limited the Warriors to 4 hits and 3 walks and struck out 8 in a 103-pitch, 8-inning performance.

However, the Storm offense was held to 4 hits by Petersen and Jones. Petersen limited South Elgin to an earned run on 3 hits and 3 walks and struck out 3 in 5⅔ innings. Jones tossed 2⅓ innings of 1-hit relief with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.

Together, Petersen and Jones left 11 South Elgin baserunners stranded, 8 in scoring position.

"When we had opportunities we did not come through, either to get some runs or add some runs," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. "We took a lot of pitches and didn't execute getting bunts down and things like that."

Kating added that losing via the pickle play typified the kind of afternoon it had been for the Storm.

"We've been practicing that for a long time and just didn't execute it," he said.

South Elgin scored its only run in the fourth inning. Dan Asa led off with a single against Petersen, stole second and scored on Joey Roberson's single up the middle.

The teams play the middle game of the 3-game series on Wednesday in Aurora at 4:30 p.m. The action shifts back to South Elgin for Thursday's series finale.