Neuqua Valley picks itself up with win

A short memory is a must for high school baseball teams.

With Tuesday's 5-1 win over Waubonsie Valley, Neuqua Valley finally began to put some distance between itself and a rough slate of games last week.

Andy Sommers pitched a 3-hitter for the Wildcats (13-14, 12-9), who salvaged the third and final game of the Upstate Eight Conference series and snapped a five-game losing streak spanning all of last week.

The streak culminated in Saturday's doubleheader sweep by Waubonsie Valley (19-6, 15-3) over the Wildcats.

"We definitely needed this, especially going into the playoffs," said Sommers, who struck out three, walked three, hit two batters and allowed no earned runs. "Throughout the year, whenever we lose we just pick ourselves back up and try our hardest because we know we're capable of so much more. I think we proved that today."

While the Warriors would have loved a three-game sweep, they're still in strong position to win the UEC Valley title with three-game series remaining with Metea Valley, which sits in second place with a 12-6 UEC record, and West Chicago. South Elgin also looms in the title picture with an 11-6 record.

"We're still in a good position, we just need to take one game at a time," said Warriors coach Dan Fezzuoglio, whose team may need to finish a suspended game against Batavia depending on the UEC race. "We just need to do our part and keep trying to win games."

Waubonsie Valley staked sophomore starting pitcher Brandon Petersen to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Drew Ellam's two-out RBI double. The Warriors' only other hit off Sommers - despite hitting the ball hard throughout the game - came in the third inning. Sommers didn't allow a runner to reach second base the final four innings.

The Wildcats took a 3-1 lead in the third inning sparked by Matt Butler's 2-run single. They extended the lead to 5-1 in the fifth when Tyler Tesmond doubled home a run and later scored on a wild pitch.

"It really is hard when you struggle for three, four, five games in a row," said Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner, whose team continues to play without Bradley-bound shortstop Mike Riesner because of a back injury. "You kind of wonder, what do we have to do? They were focused and locked in."

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