Baseball: Rain, Plainfield Central can't stop Neuqua Valley
Andrew Churchman pitched Wednesday like he has all season. It's just the conditions that were different.
The Neuqua Valley senior entered the Class 4A Hinsdale South baseball sectional semifinal in the fourth inning, got Neuqua Valley out of a jam and then shut down Plainfield Central the next two innings. The Wildcats claimed a 5-2 victory in a game called due to rain after Neuqua Valley catcher Jake Wenz walked to open the bottom of the sixth inning.
"We have all the confidence in the world in him," Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner said, noting Churchman's 5-0 record and ERA less than 1.00. "And he throws strikes and he throws three pitches for strikes. If you can do that in high school you're going to come out on top most of the time."
Churchman and Neuqua Valley came out on top by persevering through a steady rain that started in the third inning and didn't stop until after the game, making playing conditions unusually difficult.
"They just couldn't touch him. He was incredible, his command of the strike zone, both sides," Wenz said.
Churchman came in from the bullpen to a bases-loaded, two-out situation in the fourth with the mission of protecting a 4-2 Neuqua Valley lead. He induced an inning-ending grounder to first baseman Noah Ernst. He saw only seven batters over the next two innings, getting all six outs by strikeout, four of them looking.
"I knew that we were kind of in a jam right there and I knew I just needed to go in there and throw strikes," Churchman said. "Obviously, the conditions were pretty tough, but I just wanted to go in there. I felt pretty good in the bullpen being able to control my off-speed (pitches) so I just wanted to go in there and throw strikes."
"That's just him. That's him being great," Wenz added.
Wenz was pretty great with a bat in his hand. Batting in the ninth spot in the order, his double to left-center in the second inning one-hopped the fence and drove in Trevor Tesmond and Ethan Schreier with the first runs of the game.
"I just sat 3-2," Wenz said. "I just thought maybe he'd come with curveball, but then he came with the fastball and I just tried to provide for this team, pick this team up."
Wenz singled in the fourth, in addition to his walkoff walk to lead off the sixth.
Neuqua Valley (31-3) took a 4-0 lead in the third inning when Evan Ranneklev and Jack Rigoni took advantage of Plainfield Central sloppiness in the field to score. Noah Herdman slugged a fifth-inning solo home run to center field through the rain for Neuqua Valley's fifth run.
Neuqua Valley advanced to play the winner of Thursday's Plainfield North-Plainfield East game in Saturday's sectional final.