Baseball: Kulak, Rigoni help Neuqua Valley to blowout victory

Neuqua Valley's James Kulak hasn't had to pitch from behind often this season, but he did Wednesday.

Jack Rigoni and his fellow hitters made sure it wasn't for long.

Rigoni went 4-for-4 with 2 runs scored and four other players contributed 2 hits apiece to a 13-hit attack as the Wildcats routed Plainfield East 12-2 in 6 innings at the Class 4A Oswego sectional semifinals.

"Last game we were down 4-0 and we came back and won 5-4, so I think our pitchers are confident in our hitters' ability to score runs," Rigoni said. "When (the opponent) gets runs early it doesn't really affect us too much. We know we can bounce back."

The top-seeded Wildcats (34-1-1) did exactly that after the 12th-seeded Bengals scored twice in the top of the first off Kulak.

David Salazar led off with a walk and moved up on Dylan Carlson's bunt single. Jacob Knoebel then singled to right and both runners scored on a Rigoni throwing error.

But Kulak (9-1) retired the side in order and ended up with a 4-hitter, striking out 7 against 3 walks and 2 hit batsmen.

"I wasn't really nervous," Kulak said. "I know our team can produce runs and as long as I went out there and pitched better innings than the one I did the first inning, I knew we could win."

Part of that comes from experience. Kulak, a junior, improved his postseason record to 4-0. He also beat the Bengals in last year's sectional semifinals.

"In the postseason I focus more than in the regular season," Kulak said. "I realize the importance of the game and try to rise to the occasion."

Rigoni did the same thing, singling home James Gargano with the first run and scoring the third during a 4-run outburst in the bottom of the first.

"Sometimes you make errors; it's just human nature," Rigoni said. "I think I came in and I was confident in the box and I rebounded from that mistake.

"Whenever you do bad on one side you've got to make it up on the other."

The Bengals (23-16) could not make up for committing 6 errors, which led to 6 unearned runs. Plainfield East starter Logan Schmitt gave up 8 hits, but only 2 of the 6 runs he allowed were earned.

Gargano, who went 2-for-3 with 3 runs scored, slugged a solo home run to make it 5-2 in the fourth. Noah Herdman walked and later scored on Rigoni's single when the left fielder bobbled the ball.

The Wildcats tacked on 3 runs in each of the fifth and sixth. Rigoni led off the latter inning with a double and scored on Trevor Tesmond's single. Eric Nelson drove in Tesmond with a triple and scored on a wild pitch to end the game.

Tesmond, Nelson and Ryan Wheeler all had 2 hits for the Wildcats, who look unstoppable but know anything can happen in the single-elimination state tournament.

"We work really hard and we definitely don't take it for granted," Rigoni said. "We play hard every day and pretend like it's our last game, so I think we're going to make a good run."