Baseball: Conover hits leadoff homer, gets win on mound to help Wheaton Warrenville South avoid Geneva sweep

There was a sense of urgency coursing through the Wheaton Warrenville-South dugout Wednesday.

After losing the first two games of the three-game series against Geneva, the Tigers were looking to avoid getting swept on the road.

And no one knew that more than Jacob Conover, who was moved into the leadoff spot for the first time all season in the finale.

“Our coach had a big meeting after our game Tuesday talking about urgency, and I wanted to start off the game as urgent as I could,” he said. “We were still a little salty from those first two games and felt like we could have done better.”

Conover would respond to his coach’s wish with a leadoff home run, giving the Tigers a lead that he would help keep on the mound as they went on to secure an 8-3 victory over the Vikings.

“It was definitely a sigh of relief to get that early lead,” Conover said. “Got us in the game and got myself a good start, especially also with me being on the mound.”

The Missouri Southern commit, who usually bats second for the Tigers (9-6-1 overall, 2-4 DuKane) finished the day getting on base four times, with his other hit of the day being an RBI single in the second inning to put them up 3-1.

“We just wanted to shake things up for the sake of shaking things up,” Tigers coach John Schermann said. “We wanted to come out right away and stay on top, not waiting until the later innings to put rallies together.”

The Tigers ended up breaking through in the fifth inning with four runs, which was punctuated by a two-run single from Clark Bailey to turn a one-run lead into a 7-2 advantage.

“I was happy with how we came out, took the lead and then just added on in the later innings,” Schermann said. “We just had some key big base hits with runners in scoring positions, which we struggled with a bit earlier in the contest.”

That early advantage on the scoreboard proved to be a big boost on the mound for Conover, who went 5⅓ innings on the mound, allowing just two earned runs while striking out four. And while he did allow nine hits, he gave the defense plenty of credit for helping him out of some sticky spots.

“It’s definitely nice to have a defense like that behind me,” Conover said. “I trust them out there, and I just know I have to do what I can to make pitches and get outs.”

While the Tigers had no problems getting things going on both sides of the ball, the Vikings (15-3, 4-2) struggled to get things going all around. Geneva finished the game with seven errors, while also leaving nine runners on base throughout the contest.

“We definitely didn’t get the breaks we needed, and we didn’t make chances of them either,” Vikings coach Brad Wendell said. “We were looking for the big hit, or even just the bleeder and we didn’t get those. Across the board, this wasn’t a good one for us, but we’ll turn the page and get better.”

Nelson Wendell, who was batting fifth in the lineup instead of his usual second spot, had a productive day at the plate for the Vikings, going 4 for 4 with a triple while scoring two runs of the team’s three runs.

“The last three games he just didn’t have the right approach in the two-hole for us and he struggled with three strikeouts in Game 2, which he hasn’t done in a long time,” Brad Wendell said. “We put him there in hopes that he could get back to what he does, and it worked out well for him and hopefully helps him stay patient at the plate.”