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Neuqua Valley sweeps South Elgin

Neuqua Valley starting pitchers David Gerber and Nick Blackburn held South Elgin to 3 hits in 12 innings of baseball Saturday to complete a doubleheader sweep and vault the Wildcats into sole possession of first place in the Valley Division of the Upstate Eight.

The teams entered the twin bill tied with 3 division losses, but the Wildcats exited with a 1½-game lead. Gerber threw a complete-game 2-hitter to win the opener 2-1, and Blackburn dominated throughout a 5-inning, 1-hit performance in a 13-0 win in Game 2.

Neuqua Valley (19-7, 13-3) and South Elgin (15-6, 12-5) will complete the 3-game series Tuesday in Naperville. The Wildcats first play Lake Park on Monday.

“We really needed these two games,” said Gerber, who struck out 6, hit a batter and walked 3. “We fought in that first game. We executed on plays when we needed to. And in the second game we just blew it open. We’re starting to hit the ball really well.”

Game 1 was a pitchers’ duel between Gerber (5-0) and South Elgin’s Alex Wolfe (2-1), the latter of whom escaped jams in the third and fifth innings to keep the score knotted 1-1 entering the top of the seventh. That’s when the Wildcats successfully executed a squeeze bunt to take the lead.

After Neuqua Valley junior Matt Wollnik led off with a single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on Jack Amaro’s sacrifice bunt, junior Jeff Evak got the bunt down on a suicide squeeze to bring home a charging Wollnik with the go-ahead run. Evak’s bunt went for a single, his fourth of the game and his third via the bunt.

“They actually knew I was going to squeeze it because I heard one of the kids in their dugout say, ‘He’s going to squeeze,’” Evak said. “I knew I was going to get a tough pitch. I knew he was going to put it high and outside, so I just tried to get it in play fair. I was lucky enough to get a single off it.”

The Storm indeed guessed right on the squeeze, but Evak executed anyway.

“We called (the pitch) high and in, but I left it over the plate so it’s partly my fault,” Wolfe said. “ You have to tip your hat to them. It was a good game.”

In Game 2, Neuqua Valley jumped to a 4-0 lead through three innings and blew it open in the fourth with 9 runs on 7 hits. Wollnik, Tanner Giesel, Nick Iarrabino and Blackburn each drove in 2 runs, and leadoff man Amaro singled twice and scored 3 times.

South Elgin managed just 1 hit against Blackburn (5-3), who struck out 6 without issuing a walk.

“I was very pleased with the first game,” South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. “Our kids, I think, were distraught after that game. They really thought that they had a chance to win that game and do something. Now we have to get them refocused to play on Tuesday.”

“We’re all right,” South Elgin senior Andrew Weedman said. “There’s a long way to go. We’ll bounce back.”

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