Baseball: Glenbard South holds off West Chicago comeback bid

Jack Dupuis singled in the critical go-ahead run for Glenbard South.

But the Raiders weren't done. Not by a long shot.

Dupuis started what became a 7-run bottom of the sixth for the Raiders, a big inning that turned out to be necessary to thwart West Chicago's seventh-inning rally. The Wildcats had the tying run on-deck, but Glenbard South held on for Wednesday's 12-8 Upstate Eight Conference baseball victory in Glen Ellyn.

Michael Nathe, Easton Lange and Drew Vozza also drove in sixth-inning runs as a 5-5 tie turned into a 12-5 lead for the Raiders (18-8, 14-5).

West Chicago (5-15, 5-12) didn't go down quietly. Jordan Wilkins and Matt Gilbert smacked RBI singles before Raiders reliever Logan Barnick closed it out.

"Our game is to just put the ball in play and move guys over, and I felt like we accomplished that today," Dupuis said. "We kept getting guys on and getting crucial runs at the end of the game. It's kind of representative of how we've played this whole year."

West Chicago struck for 3 runs in the top of the first inning when Ryan Schmidt had an RBI single and the Wildcats coaxed a pair of bases-loaded walks. Glenbard South starter Ty Klayum settled in after that, retiring 13 straight through the fifth inning.

Dupuis and Lange each drove in a pair of third-inning runs to give the Raiders a 4-3 lead. Vozza's fourth-inning sacrifice fly made it 5-3.

"We had some really good at-bats, and we're going to need that in the tournament so we can score in bunches," said Raiders coach Marco Eufrasio. "It's reassuring to know that we've got guys who can come through when we need a big hit."

West Chicago tied it 5-5 in the top of the sixth when Schmidt doubled in a run and Armando Lopez added an RBI single.

"The game got away from us, but offensively it was good to see us battle and not just throwing at-bats away," said Wildcats coach T.J. Nall. "We competed to the end."

Twitter: @kevin_schmit