Baseball: Neuqua Valley's Hicks one batter from perfection
Leadoff walks can be a killer for baseball pitchers.
For Justin Hicks it was a prelude to perfection.
After walking the first batter he faced, the Neuqua Valley senior left-hander retired 15 straight and the Wildcats' offense mashed again in Friday's 10-0 five-inning DuPage Valley Conference victory at Wheaton Warrenville South.
Hicks' first high school no-hitter featured 7 strikeouts and only one ball hit out of the infield in a 65-pitch effort. Ryan Simek drew the walk for the Tigers (6-11, 3-7).
"I walked the first guy, but I just tried to work around it after that," Hicks said. "I just tried to go out there and throw strikes and get people out. It ended up working out pretty well. I stayed in my rhythm and it helped me stay in a groove throwing strikes."
Neuqua Valley (17-0-1, 10-0) struck for 4 runs in the top of the first behind Eric Nelson's 3-run double and Tim Schneider's RBI single. The bottom half of the Wildcats' order did damage all game long, with Drew O'Toole singling home a run and Trevor Tesmond doubling in 2 runs as part of a 5-run fifth inning.
James Gargano and Ryan Wheeler also had RBI singles at the top of the order in the fifth.
"We ran into a buzz saw today," said WW South coach Tim Brylka. "Getting in that hole early really hurt us. They just pressure you constantly. And we just couldn't get anything going offensively."
Friday's game was the ninth time the Wildcats scored double-digit runs and the seventh time they've won by at least 10 runs.
"This team continues to do things that I could never have imagined or predicted," said Wildcats coach Robin Renner. "It's so fun as coaches to watch them excel and do the things that they do."
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