Downers South sweeps Willowbrook
If Downers Grove South's baseball team celebrates another West Suburban Gold title next month, the Mustangs will look back on Saturday as a main reason why.
Against Willowbrook - perhaps their top competition in the Gold - the Mustangs opened conference play with a punishing doubleheader sweep of 15-3 and 10-4 victories over the visiting Warriors.
With two key wins in the bag, Downers South (11-2, 2-0) aims for the series sweep Tuesday at Willowbrook (7-4, 3-2).
"I know (Willowbrook) had us circled on their schedule, so we knew they were going to come out wanting to win," said Mustangs outfielder Jacob Wolf, who homered twice in the opener. "We had to think the same and come out and play as best as we could."
Game 1 began as a pitchers' duel between Willowbrook's Brian Monette, committed to Southern Illinois, and Downers South junior Nick Burdi, committed to Louisville.
With both pitchers lasting 5 innings, neither ace figured in the decision as the score remained tied 3-3 heading to the bottom of the sixth.
That's when Downers South battered the Warriors with 12 runs to end the game 15-3. All 12 runs were unearned as Willowbrook committed 3 of its 6 errors in the game. Fourteen players went to the plate for the Mustangs, capped by Wolf and his game-ending 3-run homer to center field.
John Dillon (2-0) pitched a scoreless sixth inning to win in relief. Kyle Engel went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI, while Jake Rone and Kevin Strelak also drove in 2 runs.
"You can't go out and out-slug teams all the time," said Willowbrook coach Steve Gilliam. "We talked about coming out here and executing defensively, and that's what we're going to have to start focusing on."
The defensive miscues continued for Willowbrook in the second game. The Warriors committed 4 errors - three on one play - that led to Downers South's 3-run bottom of the second inning.
Willowbrook pulled within 4-3 in the fourth inning on RBI doubles by Steve Cox and Danny Fahlgren, who went 4-for-6 with 2 RBI on the day. Downers South answered with 3 runs in the fourth, and one in the fifth before pulling ahead 10-3 in the sixth with 2 runs.
Brett Buchanan homered for Willowbrook in the top of the seventh inning to narrow the gap to 10-4, but Rone finished off the complete-game win to improve to 5-0 on the season.
"The scores are not indicative of how good (Willowbrook) is," said Downers South coach Darren Orel. "They beat themselves up a little bit today. We got a battle. That's probably the most pressure our one-two guys have had on them this year."