Baseball: Cristofaro, Neuqua Valley squeeze out win

With the bases loaded and his baseball team leading by a run in the fifth inning Saturday, Tyler Cristofaro was hoping to put a good swing on the upcoming full-count pitch.

Then the Neuqua Valley designated hitter was given the bunt sign by coach Robin Renner.

Quickly switching gears, the junior executed the perfect squeeze play, pushing across the eventual winning run in a 4-3 victory over Naperville Central in the Class 4A Bolingbrook regional final.

The Wildcats (23-13-1) advance to Wednesday's Oswego sectional semifinal, where they will take on Plainfield East.

"I was kind of nervous at first. I thought I'd be able to swing," Cristofaro said about his bunt toward first that he ended up reaching safely on. "But then I kind of knew they weren't really expecting it. Hopefully, the first baseman would come get it and then nobody would be at first.

"This is awesome. We've worked hard all season long."

Cristofaro's bunt came after Tim Schneider had broken a 2-all tie with an RBI single up the middle.

The score remained at 4-2 until the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Redhawks nearly pulled off the comeback. Three straight hits by Connor Gurnik, Beau Buchanan and Conor Joyce with one out sliced the deficit in half and left runners on first and third.

But third baseman Max Vercautren threw out the tying run at home on a groundball before Mason LeBreck fanned the final batter on a full-count curveball.

"I couldn't be more proud of this group, especially the seniors," said Naperville Central coach Mike Stock, whose team finished 24-11. "Our kids never took their foot off the pedal. But give them (Neuqua Valley) credit, they made some big plays."

Sophomore Ricky Castro started on the mound for the Wildcats and got better as the game went on. He worked 5 innings and struck out six, including one to get him out of a bases-loaded jam in the second, while allowing only four hits.

"At first I couldn't get a feel for my curveball," Castro said. "But with all the runs we scored, I got my head back into it and just kept going."

An RBI double by Jake Wenz gave Neuqua Valley a brief 2-1 lead in the fourth before Naperville Central tied it on an RBI groundout by Gabe Soria.

"That was one of the finest games I've ever been associated with as a player and a coach," Renner said. "Naperville Central is Naperville Central, they are good, good, good, and they are well-coached. We were fortunate to score one more than they did."