There’s something to be said for just taking care of business.
That’s precisely what fourth-seeded Neuqua Valley did to 20th-seeded Romeoville on Tuesday in a Class 4A Neuqua Valley Regional Semifinal en route to a 10-0, five-inning victory.
Six Wildcats recorded at least one hit while Tyler Tesmond, Matt Gould and Alex DiFranco all had at least two hits.
Three-run innings in both the first and second against Kyle Massaro and Romeoville (7-27) gave DiFranco, the Wildcats’ starter, all the run support he would need.
DiFranco’s battery mate, Gould, drove in a pair of runs during the three-run first with a two-run double.
Three innings later, as Neuqua Valley (25-10) batted around during a four-run fourth, Gould’s two-run single increased its lead over the Spartans to 8-0.
“The wind definitely helped us a lot,” said Gould, who’s now hitting .380. “I know I didn’t put the best swing on the first ball, but we got it up into the air. We have a game plan every game and that was our game plan and it worked out for us.
“It’s always about moving on and advancing. We knew we had a job to do. We haven’t been playing that well recently. We knew we had to come and we had to work. And that’s what we did.”
The Eastern Illinois-bound Tesmond went 3-for-3 for the Wildcats to raise his average to .372.
With the program’s fifth 25-win season in the last seven years now in hand, Neuqua Valley will look to get its fifth straight regional title and 10th overall on Saturday.
Connor Rektorski will get the ball against one of three teams on Saturday: fifth-seeded Downers Grove North, 12th-seeded Hinsdale Central or 21st-seeded East Aurora.
“Twenty-five, that’s a number,” Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner said. “Twenty-seven, 25, 21, whatever. The most important thing is those kids that they play as hard as they can and they grow as human beings and they certainly have done that this year. The season’s gone by really fast, from our first week of tryouts and Memphis and it’s really gone by fast and they really have grown as young men. That’s really, really cool to see.”
“It’s always fun to play in (a regional final). You never know what can happen. We were an 11 seed last year and won it. I think our sectional is so strong that really anybody (can win it). I watched Romeoville (against Wheaton Warrenville South) and they were good. … So I really was coming into this game really not quite sure exactly what I was going to see.”
What he saw was his team posting a 10-run game for the eighth time this season.
DiFranco (6-2) eventually settled in after walking the first hitter he faced in both the first and second innings to post perfect innings in both the third and the fourth.
DiFranco struck out three while scattering four hits as he left two runners in scoring position in the first and ended the game in the top of the fifth by leaving a runner at second.
“The wind was definitely a factor, blowing straight out always has an effect on your fastball and off-speed,” he said. “It just took me a couple batters to adjust, to be able to find the strike zone a little bit better.
“We had a good feeling about this game coming into it. (We’re) just trying to focus on what we’ve got to do on Saturday to advance, keep our season going.”
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