Larson, WW South on top of their game
You see flashes of greatness - and not so greatness - with young baseball teams.
You saw a bit of both on Saturday with Wheaton Warrenville South and Metea Valley.
Behind Illinois-bound junior Caleb Larson on the mound, the Tigers played one of their best games of the season in a 4-1 victory over Metea Valley in the final game of the DuPage Valley Conference's ALS Step Up to the Plate event at WW South.
While Larson overcame a 29-pitch first inning to strike out eight and allow 2 hits in six-plus innings, Tigers catcher Griffen Pschigoda launched a decisive 2-run homer in the bottom of the third to break a 1-1 tie.
The Tigers' lone error allowed the tying run to come to the plate in the seventh inning, but reliever Mike Romano got two outs on two pitches to end the game.
"The effort by Caleb was tremendous, and throughout the game we had guys making plays all over," said Pschigoda, one of only three seniors in Saturday's lineup. "Today we found a way to dig deep and find something extra.."
Metea Valley (10-14, 7-12), which had three sophomores and a freshman in the lineup, including sophomore pitcher Jack Cagigal, took a 1-0 lead in the first when Ashton Creal reached on a walk and scored on a balk. Jared Smaga wasted no time tying the game in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single.
WW South (9-17, 6-14) took a 4-1 lead in the fourth on Ryan Simak's RBI single.
"Jack Cagigal threw the ball pretty well and made only one mistake the whole game," said Metea Valley coach Craig Tomczak. "We're trying to mix and match some guys because of some injuries, but even going that route we feel we have a chance to win some games."
In the earlier games at WW South, Naperville Central beat Naperville North 9-1 and Glenbard North topped Lake Park 14-6.
"It's been a tough year and it's been a struggle to put everything together on the same day," said Tigers coach Tim Brylka. "A game like this is what you shoot for every day."
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