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Baseball: Gomez, South Elgin hold off West Aurora

Nate Gomez was at his best Wednesday afternoon - and South Elgin's baseball team needed it.

Gomez, a junior pitcher, recorded a career-high 16 strikeouts while tossing a 2-hit complete game during South Elgin's 2-1 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division victory over West Aurora (4-14, 3-5) in South Elgin.

The hard-throwing right-hander improved his record to 3-0 with a scintillating 102-pitch performance that included just 26 balls and 76 strikes. The 16 strikeouts is a South Elgin school record.

Gomez mowed through the order in each of the first 3 innings, fanning all 9 batters on just 35 pitches.

"I had good command of my off-speed pitches and my fastball was hitting my spots," said Gomez, who also struck out the side in the sixth inning.

The Storm (11-2, 6-0) relied on Gomez at the plate as well.

In the first, Patrick Keaty walked and advanced to third on a single by Gomez before Kevin Barry knocked in the game's first run on a fielder's choice grounder.

With the game tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Gomez delivered the game-winning base hit - a 1-out RBI single through the middle of the Blackhawks' drawn-in infield that sent Bryant Diel across the plate.

"I just tried to get it on the ground and get the run in," said Gomez. "They were throwing me off-speed all game pretty much so I was actually looking for off-speed. I sat back and hit it up the middle and got the job done."

"He's a competitor," said Storm coach Jim Kating, who earned his 200th career victory during Tuesday's 13-9 win over West Aurora. "He likes to be up there in situations like that. I actually feel he thrives in it."

West Aurora's first ball hit in play turned into its lone run of the contest.

After an infield error on a ball hit by junior catcher Cam Zimmerman, a sacrifice bunt from Aric Johnson and Dustin Tomas' single to right, Charlie Griswold's RBI double to deep left-center tied the game at 1-1.

The Blackhawks were unable to push across the go-ahead run as Storm first baseman Adam Walker caught a man in a rundown at third on a fielder's choice grounder before Gomez fanned the next hitter to end the threat.

"We couldn't get another one in there," said Blackhawks coach John Reeves. "It looked like it was shaping up to be that kind of day."

West Aurora junior starter Jacob Gray also pitched well, limiting the Storm to just 3 hits until the sixth. Gray walked 2 and fanned 3 during a valiant 97-pitch effort.

"He gave us a chance and that's all you can ask," Reeves said of Gray.

Diel's leadoff double and Keaty's sacrifice bunt set up Gomez for his sixth-inning offensive heroics.

Gomez returned to the mound and worked a 1-2-3 seventh that included his 16th punch out.

"This was right up there with (former Storm pitchers) Ryan Nutof and Ryan Weiss," said Kating. "I would say the best game I saw was Nutof against the kid from Lake Park where the game lasted an hour and five minutes but that (Gomez) was dominant.

"He brought some intensity that we were lacking today and thank goodness he had that performance."

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