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Baseball: Neuqua Valley can't keep up with Plainfield Central

Bases loaded, nobody out and already leading by 2 runs.

At that point Neuqua Valley's baseball team faced two options: blowout or blown opportunity.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the latter proved costly.

After failing to score in the pivotal bottom of the third inning, Plainfield Central broke out its bats and pulled away to Saturday's 11-4 victory in the Class 4A Oswego sectional championship game played in Minooka due to unplayable field conditions at Oswego.

Sixth-seeded Plainfield Central (29-9) advances to Monday's Standard Bank Stadium supersectional in Crestwood to face St. Charles North, a 4-2 winner over Elk Grove.

"Not scoring that inning really hurt us and they took advantage," said Neuqua Valley senior outfielder Ethan Schreier, who went 3-for-4 and scored twice. "Obviously everyone wanted to win this game so we stayed up and tried to come back. Everyone was doubting us this year so it was good to get this far."

Top-seeded Neuqua Valley (26-8) led 2-0 after two innings on Justin Blazek's RBI fielder's choice and Mike Gould's sacrifice fly. As starting pitcher Jake Karaba rolled on the mound, the Wildcats then loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the third.

Plainfield Central reliever Sam Pileggi, who threw the final 5 innings to earn the win, pitched out of the jam with a strikeout and double play. That flipped the momentum to the visitors' dugout and led to a 6-run explosion in the top of the fourth inning.

It started with a game-tying 2-run homer by Brandon Micetich and continued after two outs. Pileggi, Jake Donahue and Justin Divelbiss drove in runs.

"We just stayed patient in our approach and started hitting line drives all over the yard," Micetich said. "That was our focus and that's what we did. We limited them that inning before and that really helped us."

Suddenly trailing 6-2, Neuqua Valley chipped away. Kevin Butler had a sacrifice fly and Nick Taylor drove in a run with a groundout to pull the Wildcats within 6-4 in the bottom of the sixth.

In the top of the seventh, however, Plainfield Central exploded again for 5 runs. Pileggi, Bobby Boekeloo, Donahue and Divelbiss came through with RBI hits.

For a second straight year Neuqua Valley fell in the sectional final. But considering what the Wildcats lost to graduation coming into this season, advancing that far again was a pretty big accomplishment.

"This team gave me everything they had," said first-year Neuqua Valley coach James Thornton. "We had opportunities that we didn't cash in on, and they did. But I'd go to war with this group any day of the week. We grew as a team and we grew as a family, and I'll take that."

Twitter: @kevin_schmit

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