Neuqua sweep is worth the wait
Even if it took all day - a distinct possibility - Neuqua Valley's baseball team was going to cap its doubleheader sweep of St. Charles East.
Grinding through a rain delay and three lightning delays, Neuqua Valley finally notched its Upstate Eight Conference sweep with 8-1 and 9-4 victories over the Saints on Saturday in Naperville.
The Wildcats (10-6, 5-1) won Game 1 behind the pitching of Indiana-bound right-hander Mike McKinley (2-1), who struck out 13, walked one and scattered 6 hits in a complete game. He also homered.
"I felt pretty good today even with the wind blowing out," McKinley said. "I hadn't started a game in a week and a half, and I was just itching to get on the mound. This was a real gut check for our team to come out and get two wins."
Much of the second game belonged to the Saints (4-9, 2-4) after they took a 3-1 second-inning lead on Johnathan Erickson's sacrifice fly, Kyle Wiebe's RBI single and Tommy Konrad's solo homer.
The Wildcats trailed 3-2 going into the seventh when they exploded for 7 runs. McKinley drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game and Kyle Mener followed with a grand slam rocket to left.
Ryan Wagner and Jordan Williamson added insurance with run-scoring hits, but Mener did more than enough damage on his own. The senior outfielder went 6-for-8 on the day with 2 doubles, 2 homers and 9 RBI.
"We had to keep battling," Mener said. "We've lost a couple of games towards the end and we just wanted to do it ourselves and come back and get a late-inning win."
Neuqua Valley led 9-3 heading to the bottom of the seventh and was two outs away from victory when the final lightning delay struck. After play resumed Wiebe's infield single narrowed the gap to 9-4, but Chris Widup got the final two outs to preserve the win for Craig Provow, who pitched 6 strong innings while being matched on the mound by the Saints' Konrad.
"We never added on after the second inning," Saints coach Mark Foulkes said of the Game 2 loss. "Give credit to the Neuqua kids for not giving up and getting the big hit, but it was a game where we could have given ourselves a little bit more of a cushion."
Dan While drove in St. Charles East's lone run in the first game. The Wildcats' Wagner went 3-for-4 in the opener.
BOX SCORES
neuqua valley 8, st. charles east 1 (Game 1)
St. Charles East 000 000 1 -1-6-2
Neuqua Valley 303 020 0 -8-11-0
2B: SCE: White. NV: Mener; HR: NV: McKinley, Mener. WP: McKinley (2-1) LP: Wiebe (0-4)
Neuqua Valley 9, st. charles east 4 (Game 2)
Neuqua Valley 101 000 7 -9-10-3
St. Charles East 210 000 1 -4-10-2
2B: NV: Wagner, Mener. SCE: Scott, White; HR: NV: Mener, SCE: Konrad.
WP: Provow (1-0) LP: Konrad (0-1)