Baseball: South Elgin's Gomez snuffs out West Aurora rally
West Aurora's seventh-inning rally was a fast-spreading grease fire and South Elgin relief pitcher Nate Gomez was the baseball equivalent of baking soda.
The right-hander took over for lefty starting pitcher Joey Roberson with a 2-run lead in the seventh, no outs and the potential tying runs at second and third.
The 5-foot-11, 165-pound sophomore calmly smothered the flames by retiring the next three Blackhawks on a foul pop to third baseman Jake Miller, a strikeout and a soft pop to second baseman Justin Howard to preserve South Elgin's 5-3 win in the Upstate Eight Valley.
"My mindset was to just do my thing and try not to let them hit the ball, even on the ground, because that's a run right there," said Gomez, who posted his second save in as many tries.
The penultimate out of the game was the toughest for Gomez and South Elgin, which won its seventh straight to improve to 11-4 overall, 5-0 in the UEC Valley.
After inducing a foul pop from West Aurora cleanup hitter Jake Arsenault for the first out, Gomez and No. 5 hitter Jacob Lipscomb locked horns in an 11-pitch at-bat. The left-handed hitter ran the count to 3-1 before fouling off the next 6 pitches from the right-handed hurler. Finally, Gomez got Lipscomb to climb the ladder on a high fastball to record the critical strikeout for the second out.
"That kid was timing his fastball up," Roberson said of Lipscomb. "Nate battled and got the job done."
Though their late rally fell short, the Blackhawks took pride in the way they competed. West Aurora (5-10-1, 1-4) played an errorless game, collected 8 hits and received a decent start from losing pitcher Logan Love, who allowed 4 earned runs on 9 hits, struck out 1 and hit a batter in 6 innings.
However, the Blackhawks left nine men on base, five in scoring position.
"We played well, just lost," West Aurora coach John Reeves said. "It's just one of those days where you play well and do a whole lot of good things, but you either hit with runners in scoring position or you don't. Sometimes that's how it boils down. You can't be too upset about it. They're obviously a good team and they do a lot of things well."
South Elgin jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Roberson helped himself with a 2-run single with one out that drove in junior Kevin Barry and senior Mitch Butvilas.
"I knew there was less than two outs so I was just looking to get that first run in no matter what," Roberson said. "I got my pitch and I just drove it up the middle."
The Storm extended the lead to 4-0 in the sixth on Miller's run-scoring infield single and a pinch-hit single by Jerry Piaskowy.
South Elgin needed the extra cushion. Roberson (2-0) kept the Blackhawks under wraps until the sixth when they broke through for 2 runs on a leadoff walk and 2 hits. Connor Palmby and Matt DesJardine each drove in runs.
The Storm made it 5-2 in the seventh when leadoff man Justin Howard doubled and later scored on a Mitch Butvilas sacrifice fly.
The Blackhawks got that run right back in the bottom of the seventh. Leadoff hitter Ryan Becker singled, Oscar Acevedo walked and Love doubled.
Exit Roberson, enter Gomez.
"Joe's a senior. It felt good to help him get that W," Gomez said.