Baseball: Vesevick derails Lake Park rally, preserves win for Wheaton North
Jon Vesevick took a 3-run lead to the mound in the top of the seventh inning, and a double play put Wheaton North's baseball team in quick position to preserve it.
Then a walk sent the tying run to the on-deck circle. Another walk brought it to the plate and a third straight walk loaded the bases. Add a run-scoring error, and suddenly the tying run moved into scoring position.
As hard as Vesevick worked to roll through the bulk of the game, he wasn't about to fall apart now.
The senior left-hander struck out the next batter and Wheaton North held on for Wednesday's 4-2 DuPage Valley Conference victory over visiting Lake Park.
"I was just trying to attack hitters and throw strikes, just anything I could do to get them out," Vesevick said. "It felt great to get that last strikeout. I knew our guys would get some runs eventually."
Wheaton North (12-5, 8-2), which goes for the series sweep on Thursday, trailed 1-0 from the top of the first inning until the bottom of the sixth when the Falcons broke through for their 4 runs. Sam Hacker's 2-run single gave the Falcons a 3-1 lead, and a sacrifice fly by Chris Donahue boosted the advantage to 4-1.
It was a tough inning for the Lancers (9-7, 6-5), who also lost second baseman Thomas Ross to injury on a hard slide into the bag on a force-out attempt.
"We don't coach for wins or losses, we coach for these kids, and to see him go out was tough," said Lake Park coach Dan Colucci. "But both pitchers were tough. It was just unfortunate circumstances in that last inning where we kind of lost our focus and it got away from us."
Anthony DeConcilis scored the Lancers' run on a pickoff-attempt error with runners on first and third. Vesevick struck out five, walked four and allowed 3 hits, allowing no runners to reach second base from the second through the sixth inning.
Lake Park starter Casey Berner scattered 6 hits in 5-plus innings, stranding two runners in scoring position. He was relieved with two runners on and nobody out in the sixth.
"I give our guys credit," said Wheaton North coach Dan Schoessling. "They stuck with it and kept putting the ball in play, and got the big hit when we needed it."
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