Waubonsie Valley's Neville shuts out Naperville Central

At the sophomore level last season, first-year Waubonsie Valley baseball coach Bryan Acevedo became accustomed to Jason Neville's effectiveness on the mound.

Last season, however, has nothing on what Acevedo saw from Neville in his first varsity start on Wednesday.

The junior righty fired a 3-hitter and the Warriors scored both their runs in the bottom of the sixth inning in a 2-0 win over Naperville Central in Aurora.

Neville struck out seven and walked one while facing only two over the minimum 21 batters in an 80-pitch complete-game effort.

"It was kind of a struggle, we had many innings where we had a chance to get a run but we didn't," Neville said. "I just kept fighting and kept throwing strikes."

Neville was efficient enough not to endure too many jams, but he definitely had some work to do when Beau Buchanan led off the top of the sixth with a triple for Naperville Central (3-2). With the go-ahead run standing at third, Neville struck out the next two batters and coaxed a groundout to keep the game scoreless.

Waubonsie Valley (2-1) carried that momentum to the bottom of the sixth by loading the bases with two outs on singles by Garret Howicz and Ryan Jones and a walk to Brandon Petersen. Paul Vickers skipped a grounder just over the bag at first base to drive in Howicz and Jones.

That was it for the offense. Neville retired the Redhawks in order in the top of the seventh on 9 pitches.

"I had the pleasure of watching him last year as a sophomore, and he was good, but what we saw today was probably better than anything we saw last year," Acevedo said. "He was on today. He threw all four of his pitches for a strike and really kept the hitters off balance."

Naperville Central starter Glenn Kozlowski matched Neville pitch-for-pitch during his 5 shutout innings. Kozlowski scattered 3 hits and walked one while striking out three. Liam Heath took the loss for the Redhawks.

"We've just got to compete a little more at the plate, but, again, Neville pitched well," said Redhawks coach Mike Stock. "We had a man on third and he just took care of us in the top of the sixth. It was disappointing, but it was fun to watch. As far as this week's gone, since Friday our pitching's ahead of our hitting. If you look at our lineups, we're shuffling the deck and trying to find some hot hands."

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