Nutof, South Elgin roll over Wheaton North

Ryan Nutof called his first-inning home run Thursday an "accident."

The South Elgin baseball team would like more of those kind of accidents.

Nutof's solo home run was all the senior needed on the mound, but his teammates added some more offense as the Storm beat Wheaton North, 10-0, in five innings in the Class 4A Hoffman Estates regional semifinals.

"It was on 0-2 pitch and I just tried to fight it off," Nutof said. "I guess it went out."

The seventh-seeded Storm (20-10) will play No. 16 Hoffman Estates at 11 a.m. Saturday in the regional championship.

Nutof (7-0) allowed just 1 hit, a two-out triple to Greg Scandora in the first inning. The right-hander, who threw just 45 pitches in the first four innings, struck out four and walked three.

"We definitely faced a good arm today," Falcons coach Dan Schoessling said. "We hit the ball hard a couple times. One of those days where we're hitting it right at somebody, in those instances we did (hit the ball). Ryan pretty much controlled the game."

South Elgin added another run in the second on a run-scoring double from Justin Bryski. Jared Kramer and Antonio Danesi had RBI and Kyle Hays scored on a wild pitch in a 3 - run third inning for the Storm.

Hays, Danny Asa, Danesi and Bryski each had RBI as the Storm scored five times in the fourth.

"We've got a chance to play for another regional title," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. "We missed out a little bit in conference. We've been playing pretty good baseball the second half of the season."

Dane Toppel and Bryski each had 2 hits for the Storm.

Zach Colangelo (4-4) suffered the loss for Wheaton North (18-15). The right-hander lasted only 2⅔ innings, allowing 6 hits and 5 runs.