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Baseball: Hinsdale South hands Willowbrook first Gold loss

Pitching, defense and small ball has always been a staple of Paul Hoel-led teams at Hinsdale South.

The thing is, that formula continues to work.

Behind a sterling pitching performance by Charlie Klemm and equally flawless defense, the Hornets handed Willowbrook its first West Suburban Gold loss on Monday with an 8-1 victory in Darien.

Klemm tossed a complete-game, allowing five hits while striking out eight. His defense behind him didn't make an error, an effort that was highlighted by a diving catch by right fielder Nick Wenkus in the fifth inning.

"I knew today we were going against a tough opponent," said Klemm, whose shutout was broken up with two outs in the seventh. "But I also knew it was a must win if we wanted to stay in the conference hunt. I was trying to get ahead of hitters so I could use all of my pitches. I felt I could throw any of my pitches in any count and that kept them off balance, especially when going through the lineup multiple times.

"And it was huge to make all of the plays. Everybody did a great job."

Offensively, Hinsdale South (12-5, 6-4) pushed across eight runs without the help of an extra-base hit.

A hit-by-pitch, a wild pitch, a sacrifice bunt and a groundout accounted for the first run in the second before the Hornets scored three more in the fourth on an error, another hit batter, three stolen bases, a hit-and-run RBI single by Klemm and a 2-RBI bloop hit by John Colucci.

John Stoltz and Colucci each drove in two more apiece with singles in the fifth.

"We played well," said Hoel, whose team was coming off a recent stretch of 15 games (including JV games) in 16 days. "That's what we want to do, field it and pitch it. And we did a nice job running the bases and a nice job taking extra bases. We do make mistakes, but it's because we are real aggressive. We try to play that way."

Alex Michaelson started on the mound for the visiting Warriors and worked into the fifth inning, striking out eight. Willowbrook (12-3, 4-1) was hurt by 5 errors.

"Those guys put a lot of pressure on you," Willowbrook coach Vic Wisner said. "The errors hurt but their guy pitched a great game. He had three pitches he could throw for a strike. He did a really nice job and they play the game the way you should. We are young and some of those mistakes were young guy mistakes. Hopefully we can learn from them."

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