Weiss, South Elgin stand tall against Willowbrook

At a lanky 6 feet, 4 inches tall with close-cropped hair, Ryan Weiss bears more than a striking resemblance to a young Nolan Ryan.

That's fitting, because that's about how well the South Elgin senior starting pitcher looked Saturday in a 4-0 shutout of No. 2 seed Willowbrook in a Class 4A regional championship baseball game at Wheaton North.

Weiss gave up just 1 hit and a pair of walks while striking out 9 as he helped the No. 7 seed Storm make a return trip to sectional play. South Elgin (23-7), which took third in Class 4A last year, will play Lake Park at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Charles East.

How dominant was Weiss? He retired the first 10 hitters he faced, striking out 6 of them, before giving up a double to Cam Zunkel. Then he retired the next 7 in a row before walking Mike Petruzzi.

But by that time, his hitters had erupted with 3 runs in the top half of the sixth inning, giving Weiss more than enough insurance, even with a driving rain falling most of the seventh.

"His curveball worked really well," said South Elgin catcher Mitch Butvilas, who had perhaps the best view of Weiss' handiwork Saturday. "He could throw it for a strike every pitch, every count. He just kept pounding the zone. His fastball was looking really good, but mostly his curveball. They didn't really break up his rhythm too much, so we just kept working as fast as we could."

"Honestly, it was just confidence and feeling good, and on my pitches, whatever was called, I threw it and got away with it," added Weiss, who took up pitching just 2 years ago.

While Weiss turned in a stellar performance, his counterpart, Chris Roycroft was almost as effective, scattering 5 hits while striking out a pair.

But in this game, like almost any elimination game, winning and losing came down to a few key intervals.

The first came in the top of the first inning, when Butvilas doubled to right field, scoring Kyle Hays and moving Nick Menken to third. Roycroft got out of the jam by getting Justin Howard to ground out to first baseman Trey Jones, but the damage had been done.

The second came in the sixth. Menken walked and was sacrificed to second by Jared Kramer. Menken then moved to third on a Roycroft pickoff move that went awry. Butvilas was next and reached on a hit by pitch, putting runners at first and third with 1 out. Howard followed with a grounder that Willowbrook committed an error on, allowing Menken to score. Later, with runners on second and third with 2 out, Danny Asa reached on a throwing error, allowing pinch runner Patrick Soderquist and Howard to score.

It could have been worse. Willowbrook right fielder T.J. Geritano made a spectacular diving catch of a long fly by Kevin Barry to mercifully end the inning. It was his second terrific catch in the frame, as he made a sliding grab of a fly ball by Antonio Danesi earlier.

And that was that. Weiss issued 1 walk apiece in the sixth and seventh to close the game out and send South Elgin to the sectional.

"With Ryan, he has grown a couple of inches, he has put on 15 or 20 pounds, he works his butt off in the winter, he's added three or four miles per hour to his fastball," said Storm coach Jim Kating. "This only his second year pitching. I've been telling college coaches that he's raw and he's got some talent to do some things. He's still filling out and learning to play this game."

But for Weiss's example, Saturday was all about the team, and the opportunity to take the next step on a journey back to IHSA state competition.

"The overall goal is to get back to where we were last year, state, and in order to do that, we have to stay together as a team, no one can drift off," Weiss said. "If we stay together, good things happen, like today."

Across the diamond, Willowbrook coach Vic Wisner was disappointed to see his team's season come to an end, but chalked up the loss the South Elgin's ability to be opportunistic on the basepaths.

"They took advantage of it, played a little small ball, got guys around," said Wisner, whose team finished 26-10. "They made contact. Maybe that was the difference. We didn't make as much contact, so their outs were at least productive outs. They moved guys around and got guys in. It was a great game."