Baseball: WW South takes series from Glenbard North

The Wheaton Warrenville South baseball team used its legs and a big sixth inning to secure a series win over Glenbard North on Monday.

Knocking out 15 hits while stealing five bases, the Tigers pulled away to a 12-7 victory in Carol Stream in the DuPage Valley Conference rubber match. The teams had split the previous two games.

"It was good," WW South coach Tim Brylka said. "I've felt pretty good with how we have done offensively. Even in the games we didn't win, I've felt our approach was good and that is something we have talked about all year. It is nice seeing it come to fruition. It was good to see guys come through with big two-out RBI."

A sacrifice fly by Paul Monaco in the top of the first opened the scoring. After the Panthers answered with a pair of unearned runs, WW South tied it up with an RBI single from Spiro Pavlou. The visitors then took the lead for good with a two-out run scoring hit by Drew Polezoes in the fourth. Polezoes also made a diving play in the second to keep a run off the board.

The Tigers (5-7, 3-5) broke the game open with six runs in the sixth, with Nick Howland and Nick Spanola tallying back-to-back RBI doubles before Jeran Simpson drove in two more with a double.

"We hit the ball well today," Polezoes said. "We definitely came out attacking the ball. Everybody hit the ball great today."

Grant Negris started on the mound for WW South and after walking the first two batters, both of whom came around to score on errors, the lefty settled into a groove. He didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning and worked into the sixth.

"I was really happy with how he worked out of that first inning," Brylka said, "and that was huge for his confidence."

Glenbard North (4-10, 2-6) made things interesting by scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth, with Mark Cerabona coming through with a bases-loaded single. Zach Bachara added an RBI hit in the seventh.

"Their pitcher did a good job of throwing strikes and keeping us off balance," Glenbard North coach Rich Smelko said. "It was a rough day for us."