Above: Waubonsie Valley senior right-hander Preston Everts fires during Waubonsie Valley’s 3-0 shutout of Wheaton Warrenville South on April 18, 2015.
As defending Upstate Eight Valley champions, Waubonsie Valley has every intention of trying to defend that crown.
But given where the program is headed after this year, Saturday gave another glimpse of what life will be like in the DuPage Valley Conference starting next year.
Behind a complete game from Preston Everts, Waubonsie Valley shut out Wheaton Warrenville South, 3-0, to complete a sweep of the three DVC opponents on its schedule.
The senior right-hander needed 86 pitches to dispatch of the Tigers to help the Warriors improve to 10-3 on the season.
“I was just trying to work ahead and if I didn’t work ahead, I was definitely trying to get back into the strike zone and just get in front of them,” Everts said.
Everts (2-0) was last seen throwing an inning of relief in a 6-1 loss to South Elgin on Wednesday, but he made life consistently tough on the Tigers.
In his first start since no-hitting East Aurora during a complete game effort on April 8, Everts scattered four hits and fanned three and didn’t face much trouble.
When he did get into a pinch, he was able to rely on his pickoff move to get out of a couple jams.
After the Tigers got their first two men to start the fourth, Everts picked Eric Giltz off second before striking out Austin Polezoes to get the second out of the frame. His battery mate, Nick Price, would end the fourth by cutting down a runner at second.
An inning later, Everts would pick Jeran Simpson off first before proceeding to strike out Jake Kyllonen to retire Wheaton Warrenville South in the fifth.
“Those were big,” he said. “Those definitely (were) big. I just saw Giltz) leaning and just trusted Garret (Howicz) at shortstop to make the right call.”
All the run support Everts would need would come courtesy of a two-run first the Warriors put up against Tigers’ starter Joe Pilalis.
Price and Brandon Petersen each had RBI singles off Pilalis in the opening inning and Petersen, who went 2-for-3 would later add a second RBI single in the fourth.
Of the six hits Pilalis, who went the distance for Wheaton Warrenville South, gave up to Waubonsie Valley, four came during the two-run first inning.
“I think the first inning, we made two outs on the bases, which kind of hurts you in an inning where we were swinging the bat real well,” Waubonsie Valley coach Bryan Acevedo said. “But that opportunity for the big inning, we kind of cut it a little bit short on ourselves. But (Pilalis) threw well. He settled in after that and really kind of kept us off balance.”
