Cougars come up aces

Conant had its ace in the hole and knew what it was dealing with against Schaumburg's in Thursday's Class 4A Geneva baseball regional semifinal.

Kentucky-bound right-hander Walt Wijas delivered 4 sizzling innings of relief after sophomore left-hander Paul Warble was knocked out by a line drive in the battle of Mid-Suburban West rivals.

And fifth-seeded Conant (19-11) overcame a 3-run deficit and scored 7 two-out runs to beat No. 12 Schaumburg (16-15) and senior righty Kyle Meyer (11-2) for the second time in three tries this season in a 9-4 victory.

"We knew it would be tough facing (Meyer)," said Conant sophomore designated hitter Joe Belmonte, who hit a 3-run homer in a 4-run third inning. "It probably helped a lot seeing all of his pitches the third time around."

Seeing Wijas (5-5) a third time didn't help the Saxons much as Conant will try to win its second regional title in three years at 10 a.m. Saturday against No. 4 Geneva (20-11).

He gave up a tying homer in the fourth and single in the seventh to Bradley-bound shortstop Dave Compitello (3-for-4) but nothing else.

"I felt really good, finally," Wijas said after breaking a three-game losing streak. "It's about time.

"I was worrying about kids hitting it and I just didn't have any confidence to throw the fastball over the plate. Today I did."

Wijas had 6 of his 8 strikeouts in his first two innings and threw 37 of his 55 pitches for strikes.

"He looked like he did at the beginning of the year," said Conant coach Jerry Song.

"When he's got his stuff going," said Schaumburg coach Paul Groot, "I thought he was the best pitcher we saw all year."

Back-to-back homers by Tim Massat and Joe Dombek started a 3-run second for Schaumburg. Song said Warble was OK after being helped off the field after getting the final out of the third on Joe Infusino's shot off his left leg.

Nate Rahn homered to right to start Conant's third and Mitch Comstock's two-out double set up Belmonte's go-ahead homer to center.

"It really hurt having to throw him three times (against Conant), but unfortunately we didn't have another kid," Groot said after Meyer gave up 12 hits in 42/3 innings. "It was real obvious today. They were sitting on his breaking ball and they hit his changeup hard."

Derek Wojcik's two-out, 2-run single put Conant up 6-4 in the fourth. Sean Smith and Bobby Colucci had RBI singles in the fifth.

"That was huge," Belmonte said of the two-out damage. "We showed a lot of life today and the seniors stepped up and got us going."