Neuqua Valley hangs on this time. tops South Elgin
Six days after letting a 10-2 lead slip away in a 13-10 loss to Lake Park, the Neuqua Valley baseball team was on the precipice Thursday of seeing another lead evaporate at South Elgin.
The Wildcats led the Upstate Eight Conference game 6-2 going to the bottom of the seventh inning, a cushion padded by Chris Medhurst's 3-run home run in the top of the seventh.
However, 2 Neuqua Valley fielding errors, a walk and 2 South Elgin hits trimmed the advantage to 6-5, and the Storm had the tying run on third base with one out. But the Wildcats didn't let the lead slip away this time, thanks to a clutch double play.
Junior reliever Alex Bucz induced a sharp two-hopper off the bat of Storm No. 2 hitter Drew Buddle right at sophomore second baseman Tanner Giesel. He threw to shortstop Mike Bogar covering second, and Bogar's relay to first baseman Andrew Skowronski was in time to seal the 6-5 victory.
"I told the guys this is a game where we sneak on our tippy toes into the dugout, get our stuff and get out of here like the rat that ate the cheese," Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner said. "We want to get out of here before they take it away. They just ran out of innings. They're a very good team; they compete. We're a young team that has a hard time finishing games."
The win improved Neuqua Valley to 6-3 overall, 3-2 in the UEC. The loss dropped South Elgin to 7-3, 2-2.
"We put ourselves in position to give us a chance to tie or win the game and we just came up short," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. "We hit the ball hard but at somebody and it turned into a double play.
"We finally came the last few innings with a little more energy and urgency to get things done. We sat around too long in this game to take control of it. We gave them 1 extra run and that was the difference."
The extra run Kating referenced occurred in the fourth inning with the Wildcats already leading 2-0, courtesy of Mike Gerber's 2-run home run in the first inning off South Elgin's Buddle.
Neuqua made it 3-0 when Jake Gallucci laid down a sacrifice bunt with 2 baserunners aboard. The bunt was fielded cleanly, but the throw to first skimmed off the glove of the second baseman covering the bag, allowing an unearned run to score.
South Elgin fought back in the bottom of the fourth with a 2-run rally with two outs. Catcher Kyle Kinyon singled and John Menken followed by crushing a 2-run home run over the center-field fence.
"I was just trying to get my pitch up there, battling, just trying to get something going with two outs," Menken said. "I got my pitch and hit it."
However, the Storm managed little else against Gallucci. The senior right-hander struck out 11 without a walk and allowed 6 hits in 52/3 innings.
"I was just trying to get ahead of hitters," Gallucci said. "I had basically all my pitches working for me today. When you can do that you're probably going to have a good day."