Warriors wallop Mustangs

If this Waubonsie Valley baseball team looks familiar, that's because it's the same one from last summer.

That's good news for the Warriors.

Playing perhaps their best game of the season thus far, the Warriors rolled into the Class 4A Plainfield South regional final with Thursday's 10-0 five-inning semifinal win over Downers Grove South.

While Waubonsie Valley's status as an 11th seed in the Lockport sectional deems this an upset over No. 6 Downers South (25-11), anyone who's seen the Warriors (20-14) since the middle of April knows they can compete.

The way they played on Thursday brought back memories of their run to the IHSBCA state semifinals last summer. The timing for the resurgence couldn't be better.

The Warriors will try to knock off another higher-seeded team at 11 a.m. Saturday when they face No. 3 Lockport in the regional final.

"When kids get hot and feel confident, it just starts to steamroll," said Waubonsie Valley coach Dan Fezzuoglio. "We've seen it in this group. After last summer we know this team has it in them."

Winning pitcher Ryne Gill (4-2) and Mustangs starter Greg Fox (4-5) pitched two scoreless innings before the Warriors broke through in the top of the third with Kevin Kirchner's 3-run homer.

That was all the offense Gill needed. He pitched a 2-hitter on 56 pitches in 5 innings. An errorless defense was led by third baseman Sam Carius.

"I knew if I went out there and just did my job, I could rely on my defense," Gill said. "The defense and the hitting, that's what it was today."

After Jonny Strauss singled home a run in the fourth, Gill got a bunch more support when the Warriors exploded for 6 runs in the fifth. Trevor Romeo doubled in 2 runs while Kris Singh, Strauss and Eric Sousanes also drove in a run to boost the lead to 10-0.

All 10 runs were scored with two outs.

"We hit one through nine, and I think overall that's one of our strengths," Kirchner said. "We thought we had a good chance of winning but we didn't think we'd hit as well as we did. But once we get momentum we're pretty hard to stop."

The Mustangs' best chance came in the third inning when they trailed 3-0. They had runners on first and third with one out but Gill escaped the jam by retiring the next two batters.

"They were better than us, tip your caps to them," said Mustangs coach Darren Orel. "They hit the ball and their kid did a great job on the mound."