Baseball: Mueller, Wheaton North break out of slump
Wheaton North's baseball team struggled to make contact in its first two games with Metea Valley, so the Falcons decided to be more aggressive at the plate on Saturday.
The strategy definitely paid off for Erik Mueller.
The senior third baseman got the best of a stiff wind blowing in, lacing a 2-run double on the first pitch he saw in the top of the seventh inning to give Wheaton North a 6-4 DuPage Valley Conference victory over the Mustangs in Aurora.
Hitless in his previous nine at-bats in the series, Mueller saved his best swing for last to help the Falcons (8-8, 6-3) take two of three from Metea Valley (6-10, 3-8).
"At the plate we've been struggling a little bit lately, but we just had to get the job done," Mueller said. "You have keep pushing through in a game and in a series like this. We got the momentum going these last couple of days."
The Mustangs burst to a 3-0 lead after two innings behind Nick Hegar's RBI single and Carter Wardell's sacrifice fly.
Connor Olson's run-scoring groundout pulled Wheaton North within 3-1 in the third inning before the Falcons took a 4-3 lead in the fourth. Andrew Nelson's RBI double sparked the rally.
Wardell added another sacrifice fly to tie the game 4-4 in the sixth, setting up Mueller's go-ahead double. Jackson Pastore, who got the win in relief of Jon Vesevick, set the Mustangs down in order in the bottom of the seventh.
"A really good comeback win for us," said Falcons coach Dan Schoessling. "We got down early and just fought back. We did a much better job of putting the ball in play and making them work a little bit defensively. I'm proud of the way we approached it offensively today."
D.J. Hagen had 2 hits for Wheaton North while Jack Dziewiatkowski and Mike Varzino had 3 hits for Metea Valley.
The Mustangs committed 3 errors, giving them 10 for the series.
"Throughout the series both teams were pretty evenly matched, and it was a matter of who was going to make the plays," said Mustangs coach Craig Tomczak. "Today we made the mistakes. That's us right now. We're in every game, but we're making too many mistakes."
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