Waubonsie Valley finds second wind
Regardless of Tuesday's exhaustion, count on this.
Waubonsie Valley's baseball team still has plenty left in the tank.
A long day ended with good news for the Warriors, who beat Oak Park 7-1 to stave off elimination in the IHSBCA Phil Lawler Summer Classic at Lisle's Benedictine University.
Waubonsie Valley's back was against the wall after a crushing 5-4 morning loss to Sandburg. Had the Warriors (30-15) lost to Oak Park (20-9), they would have been eliminated from the tournament. Instead, the Warriors will make their second straight summer semifinal appearance when they face St. Rita at 12:30 p.m. today at Naperville's North Central College.
Unlike last year's 8-0 semifinal loss, however, this time the Warriors aim to advance to Thursday's title game.
"We've all been here before," said senior outfielder Jeff Brown. "We know what to do, and I don't think we're going to be as satisfied with a Final Four. I think we want to get there and try to win a state championship."
A 5-run top of the seventh, keyed by a 2-run double from Kris Singh and RBI hits by Eric Josupait and Ryan Vega, broke open a 2-1 game and provided plenty of insurance for Mike Murphy's complete-game pitching effort.
Surviving until that outburst took some doing. Oak Park twice stranded the bases loaded, including in the fifth inning when Singh made a tremendous diving catch in center field to end the frame.
In the bottom of the sixth, with the tying run at third, Brown caught a flyball in right field and fired home as the Huskies' runner tagged up and tried to score. The ball went slightly up the first-base line, but Josupait snagged it and dove across the plate to apply the inning-ending double play tag.
Fired up from the stellar defense, Waubonsie Valley turned a 2-1 nailbiter into a 7-1 breeze.
"We knew there would be a play at the plate," Josupait said. "When the throw came in it was a little offline, but it was on a fly on a line. I realized I needed to make a play right there to help our team."
Murphy settled down after a rough first inning when the Huskies took a 1-0 lead. Josupait's RBI single and Brown's sacrifice fly gave Waubonsie Valley a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth.
Murphy found himself in a few jams but didn't allow another run thanks in much part to a defense that committed no errors in either game on Tuesday.
"First inning I couldn't really find the strike zone," Murphy said. "I was really struggling so I had to rely on my team to make the outs. I just let them put it in play so they could get the outs and put us back in the dugout."
Oak Park 8, Glenbard North 1: The Panthers (24-12) were eliminated with Tuesday's morning loss to Oak Park, which scored 4 runs in the second inning and 3 runs in the seventh.
Glenbard North scored its run in the fourth inning when Dave Wolak tripled and scored on a wild pitch. Oak Park's Will Polley fired a 3-hitter with 8 strikeouts.
"Unfortunately it just didn't work out for us this week," said Glenbard North coach Rich Smelko. "But this is a good start for the program going into next year. We're definitely headed in the right direction."