Waubonsie Valley's Singh throws a curve at Geneva
It wasn't Kris Singh's power pitching that shut down Geneva on Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the St. Charles East regional in the IHSBCA summer state tournament.
It was just about everything else.
Singh threw strikes from the first inning to the seventh, and he showcased his new-and-improved curveball to pitch Waubonsie Valley to a 4-1 win on the Warriors' home field.
No. 1 seed Waubonsie Valley (26-14) will play at 1 p.m. today in the semifinals at St. Charles East against Oswego East, while No. 8 Geneva's summer ends at 14-8. The Warriors are trying for their second straight summer regional title at St. Charles East.
The other semifinal at 4 p.m. pits St. Charles East, who came from behind to knock off No. 18 seed Aurora Christian 9-7 Tuesday, against their cross-town rival St. Charles North. The North Stars defeated Naperville North.
Singh held the Vikings to 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out nine. He threw 73 of his 101 pitches for strikes.
"I've been working on my curveball lately with one of our pitching coaches, and that helped me out a lot," Singh said. "My control was the best I had all summer."
Geneva scored its only run in the fifth. Jerrod Campbell led off with a walk and scored on Brad Bernhard's double to deep right field.
Other than that, the Vikings had 4 hits, 2 by catcher Eric Renner.
"He wasn't overpowering, but I thought he mixed his pitches real well, kept us off balance," Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. "We didn't really challenge their defense too many times."
Singh (5-1) also got the Warriors' offense going against Geneva starter Riley Perry (1-2) with an opposite-field double leading off the second. After Ryan Vega bunted him to third, Jeff Brown delivered another opposite-field hit, this one to right to score Singh.
Sam Carius drew a two-out walk in the third, reached second on an error and made it a 2-0 game when Vega singled him home.
Sean Smith completed Waubonsie Valley's scoring with a 2-run home run to left field in the fourth, his second homer of the summer.
Perry pitched all 6 innings, striking out four and walking four, including one to Harry Vickers after Vickers fouled off five straight 3-2 pitches. That was part of a fundamentally sound day for the Warriors that included error-free ball behind Singh.
"The kids played well tonight," Warriors coach Dan Fezzuoglio said. "That's what (Singh's outing) we want out of a senior trying to get a feel for next spring."
Geneva also had a few highlights, including a pair of nifty plays from shortstop Jason Adams and right fielder Jack Delabar gunning down a runner at third base.
But the Vikings also made some mistakes on the basepaths, the kind of plays Hahn hopes to get fixed by next spring.
"If we can get those kinks out come the spring, there's plenty of talent here to have a real good spring," Hahn said. "It was a typical summer. Overall I was very pleased, and I see some things collectively as a team we need to get better at."