Deep breaths, as Warren bounces back

If it was depressing, as Warren's Ryan Davila claimed, watching Libertyville score 17 runs the previous day, Riley Lees' dazzling catch couldn't have lifted his spirits.

Just two batters into Wednesday's North Suburban Lake game at Libertyville, Lees, the home team's center fielder, robbed Chris Mathieu of extra bases by making a diving catch in deep right-center. Lees got tripped up on the small hill in front of the 330-feet sign and rolled on his shoulder, but hung onto the baseball. Wildcats right fielder Sean Ferraro motioned to the dugout for assistance before Lees, sitting while catching his breath, assured he was OK.

"Unbelievable," Libertyville coach Jim Schurr said of Lees' catch. "I was afraid he hurt himself. The kid's a phenomenal athlete."

"That's why I fell," Lees said of the hill. "I just fell right on my knees and got the wind knocked out of me. That's why I was sitting there. I was like, 'I can't breathe.' "

Libertyville could breathe easy, as its all-state football quarterback was not injured. Warren could breathe easy too, after its 5-1 win.

With the Blue Devils needing a strong pitching outing after their 17-9 loss Tuesday, Davila delivered.

"I was pretty depressed with their hitting (Tuesday)," said Davila, a 5-foot-10 lefty who plays first base when not pitching. "I didn't expect that."

Davila (5-1) had a simple plan of throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters, and he accomplished it in throwing his first complete game of the season in Warren's NSC Lake finale.

"That was a huge thing for Davila to come in and throw strikes," said coach Clint Smothers, whose 19-10 Blue Devils finished 7-5 in the division. "He did a great job of keeping their hitters off-balanced and working his curveball. He spotted his fastball real well."

Davila used a mix of curveballs and sliders to keep third baseman Jake Falish busy. Falish fielded seven plays flawlessly, spearing more than a couple of hard-hit groundballs.

"He makes a lot of good plays for us," Davila said of the senior, who plans to play at Marian University in Wisconsin. "He's a really good player."

Davila allowed only 3 hits, the same amount that Libertyville starter and fellow left-hander Andrew Plunkett yielded. Warren scored the only runs it needed in the second inning, loading the bases on Davila's leadoff walk, Ben Perner's single and Falish's sacrifice bunt, which was dropped. Michael Rosenberg's RBI single put the Blue Devils on the board, Brad Zahn lifted a sacrifice fly and a third run scored on an error.

Libertyville (18-10, 5-5) got a two-out single by Tim Calamari in the second, then didn't get another hit until there were two out in the sixth. Jake Vogt's groundball took a bad hop past Falish, and then Jimmy Govern lined a double over the head of Mathieu in center to score Vogt.

Zahn (single) and Mathieu (fielder's choice) picked up RBI in the seventh to make it 5-1. Davila issued his second and third walks of the game in the bottom of the inning but recorded his fourth strikeout to end it.

"I couldn't be more proud of the kid," Smothers said. "It's always a good win when you beat Libertyville."

"It was just one of those days," Lees said. "They were making plays. We had hard hits. The ball just wasn't falling our way. We didn't really have as many good approaches as we would have liked. But that's baseball."