Addison Trail's Kurucar shuts out Hinsdale South

Joe Kurucar waited four days for a shot at redemption.

He took full advantage when the opportunity arrived on Wednesday.

With no margin for error, Kurucar pitched a 4-hitter as Addison Trail held on for a 1-0 victory over visiting Hinsdale South in the final game of their West Suburban Gold baseball series.

The effort helped the Blazers (3-14, 2-10) salvage the third game of the series after dropping the first two to Hinsdale South (9-7, 7-2). That included Saturday's loss where Kurucar, pitching in relief, surrendered a seventh-inning lead.

The disappointment stayed fresh in his mind throughout Wednesday's complete-game effort.

"The last game kind of slipped away, but I was able to finish this one," said Kurucar, who next week will sign with Judson College in Elgin to play baseball. "I wanted that redemption so it really gave me a push to finish the game and get the shutout."

Kurucar and Hinsdale South starter Eric Benson cruised through three scoreless innings before Addison Trail broke through for the game's lone run in the bottom of the fourth. Zack Dowz laced a one-out triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jaime Valdez.

That was it for the scoring. Hinsdale South put runners on second and third with two outs in the seventh, but Kurucar ended the game with a groundout.

"Their kid did a great job, and we were kind of backward with our approach," said Hornets coach Paul Hoel, whose team played without Northern Illinois University-bound shortstop Don Buonavolanto due to a hamstring injury. "It was just one of those days. We don't have a lot of room for error, so this kind of game happens a lot for us. You've got to tip your hat to them."

The teams combined for only 7 hits, with Dowz managing 2 of Addison Trail's 3 hits. Neither team committed an error.

Benson, who struck out six and walked three, retired the final eight batters he faced. At one point Kurucar, who struck out eight and walked two, retired nine of 10 batters.

"Just a gusty performance from Joe," said Addison Trail coach Mike Kennedy. "To come back today and shut down a team like that, it's just very impressive. Even when they put a little pressure on him at the end, he never appeared rattled out there."

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