Addison Trail falls to Burdi, Downers South
Slowly but surely the last month, Downers Grove South’s Nick Burdi has been working his way back to form on the baseball mound.
Judging by Tuesday’s outing, it looks like he’s finally there.
In front of about a dozen professional scouts, Burdi showed signs of dominance in a 13-7 victory over visiting Addison Trail that gave the Mustangs two out of three games in their West Suburban Gold series.
Topping out at 93 mph and consistently hitting 90 in a 73-pitch performance, Burdi (4-1) struck out six, walked one and allowed 3 hits in 4 shutout innings.
It was Burdi’s third outing since an illness and a tweaked back kept him from pitching for a few weeks. Healthy again, Burdi’s ready to close strong for the Mustangs (16-10, 9-6) the remainder of the season.
“It felt good,” said Burdi, who is committed to Louisville. “I felt strong coming out, and with this weather it was easy to get loose. Finally coming back with the playoffs coming up, it’s nice.”
Burdi seemed to energize the Mustangs’ offense, which exploded for a 9-0 lead through his four innings of work. Nick Vanek’s RBI triple and Joe Rossi’s 2-run homer made it 3-0 in the first inning.
Three-run frames followed in the third and fourth innings as Matt Wivinis and Vanek went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI and Rossi drove in 3 runs. Nick Tenerelli and Kevin Strelak added 2 RBI apiece as Downers South had 15 hits.
“We’re swinging the bats a little better,” said Mustangs coach Darren Orel. “And you can see we’re a better team with (Burdi) on the mound.”
Addison Trail found its spark with Burdi out of the game to start the fifth inning. An infield single by Anthony Catanese drove in a run and Mike Imperiale followed with a 2-run single in a 4-run rally.
Downers South, however, extended the lead back to 12-4 with 3 runs in the bottom of the fifth. Alex Vargas and Scott Babica, who went 4-for-5, added run-scoring singles for Addison Trail (12-12, 7-8), which also tallied 15 hits.
“Our kids did a good job of battling Burdi,” said Addison Trail coach Steve Gilliam. “He showed a lot of guts out there and was tough. We’ve got a lot of juniors who are learning, and hopefully we can take a lesson out of this.”