Baseball: Waubonsie Valley’s ‘special run’ ends in hard-fought supersectional loss
After scoring 31 runs in its first four postseason games, Waubonsie Valley’s baseball team was finally held in check during Monday’s 2-0 Class 4A supersectional loss to Normal Community at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.
It was not for lack of opportunity.
The Warriors (23-13), who entered the postseason as the 10th seed in the Lockport sectional before capturing their first sectional championship since 2005, loaded the bases with 1 out in the sixth inning against Normal Community starting pitcher Lucas Klunke.
Klunke worked his way out of the jam by inducing a grounder back to the mound, where he began the 1-2-3, inning-ending double play.
“We had a lot of chances,” said Warriors coach Bryan Acevedo. “The kids battled.”
Trailing 2-0 and down to their final 3 outs heading into the top of the seventh, the Warriors continued to put the pressure on the Ironmen.
They chased Klunke in the seventh, but sophomore right-hander Lucas Beaty came on to end the threat — and the Warriors’ season with a strikeout on a borderline pitch.
“We liked our chances with our number four hitter at the plate,” said Acevedo. “He was called out on strikes on a pitch that was outside of the zone. It was an unfortunate way to end it, but that’s baseball.”
Extending its winning streak to 22 games, Normal Community (36-4) advances to Friday’s 4 p.m. state semifinals against Libertyville (34-4) at Joliet’s Slammers Stadium.
The Ironmen grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first, as Gavin Michaels tripled to the wall and came across on Kyle Beaty’s RBI grounder.
They added an insurance run in the fifth, as Gavin Swartz led off with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Brady Burkhart’s RBI groundout.
Klunke, who didn’t allow a hit until the sixth, outdueled Waubonsie right-hander Seth Gilliland, who kept the Warriors in the contest throughout with superb pitching of his own.
“Seth hadn’t pitched in two weeks,” said Acevedo, following 4 consecutive postseason complete games — 2 each from Owen Roberts and Nick Lambert. “He answered the challenge and threw really well. He only allowed four hits.”
Connor Beren, Josh Hung, and Hiroshy Wong had base hits for the Warriors, who won 10 of their last 12 contests.
“We just didn’t find the big hit when we needed to,” said Acevedo, whose team captured conference, regional, and sectional titles on the way to the state quarterfinals.
“We made it to the sectional championship last year but came up short,” added the coach. “This time, we won our second straight regional and captured the sectional title. We had a great group of 16 seniors.
“It was a special run.”