Waubonsie Valley gets timing right

Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

Riding some clutch hitting, Waubonsie Valley’s baseball team scored all its runs with two outs in Wednesday’s 4-2 win at Naperville Central.

Warriors junior left-hander Troy Fumagalli took care of the rest by pitching 6-plus quality innings. As much as Fumagalli wanted to finish the game, Ryan Vasicek wrapped it up by stranding runners at first and third with one out. A strikeout and fly out ended the game.

“Every time I go in I try to do the best I can and give my team the best situation to win,” Fumagalli said. “I thought Ryan could do a better job than me there. My back was as tight as a rock, so he did an awesome job.”

Brian Schiemann’s RBI single in the bottom of the second put Naperville Central (1-2) ahead 1-0, but Waubonsie Valley (2-1) claimed the lead for good with a 3-run third. Redhawks starter Cody Campbell struck out the first two batters before the Warriors strung together a series of baserunners to pull ahead.

There were two walks, a dropped third strike and a hit batter in a series surrounded by run-scoring singles by Fumagalli and Zac Steele. The third run scored on a bases-loaded walk to Tyler Hasper.

Fumagalli and Waubonsie Valley picked up an insurance run in the fourth on a two-out RBI single by James Palasz.

“Two-out rallies are tough to come by,” said Warriors coach Dan Fezzuoglio. “You don’t usually get those. That was a very, very good win for us against, obviously, an outstanding program.”

Naperville Central added its second run in the bottom of the sixth when Ian Lewandowski’s leadoff double led by a run-scoring groundout by Ross Murphy. The Redhawks stranded six runners, saw three runners cut down on the basepaths and lost an at-bat to an interference call.

Jeff Schank went 3-for-3 for Naperville Central, while Campbell had a pair of hits. Palasz had 2 hits for Waubonsie Valley.

“I thought we actually had some decent approaches at times, but the bottom of our order we’re getting absolutely no production from,” said Naperville Central coach Mike Stock. “That’s not necessarily the same personnel; we’re mixing it up a little bit. We’re just trying to push the right buttons. We’re trying to get them all to relax but still stay in that attack mode.”