Above: Waubonsie Valley third baseman Ryan Jones follows through on his game-tying solo homer during Waubonsie Valley’s 8-7 victory over Naperville North on May 27, 2015.
All season, Preston Everts has lurked in the shadows of a pair of juniors in Brandon Petersen and Jason Neville.
With Waubonsie Valley’s season teetering on the brink on Wednesday as Naperville North drove Petersen from the game with only one out in the fourth, the opportunity for Everts to showcase his wares had finally arrived.
Everts’ 3 2/3 innings of hitless relief of the Warriors’ ace helped his team’s offense overcome a three-run deficit as the second-seeded Warriors got a walk-off, 8-7 victory over 15th-seeded Naperville North in a Class 4A Marmion Regional Semifinal.
“I just came in and I attacked the hitters,” said Everts, who struck out two and walked two. “I wasn’t looking to strike everybody out. I was looking to get some ground balls, definitely get out of the (fourth) inning. Attacking the hitters and getting ahead was definitely a big key.”
Nick Price’s sacrifice fly to left off Matt Pillatsch with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the seventh made a winner of Everts (7-0) as Waubonsie Valley, at 28-5, now own the second-most victories in program history.
A second straight regional title in their sights, the Warriors advance to Saturday’s regional final opposite either 10th-seeded Naperville Central or seventh-seeded Plainfield Central.
“We’ve talked about it,” Waubonsie Valley coach Bryan Acevedo said. “You got to play good baseball at this time of the year and it doesn’t matter who we see on Saturday—we’ve got to play well. We kind of got away with one here. (Naperville North) is a good team.”
After Naperville North (17-16) had tagged Petersen for seven runs, four earned, on six hits, Everts getting out of the fourth with the Warriors’ deficit just 7-4 turned the game around.
Nine Warriors had at least one hit off the Huskies’ pitching combination of Luke Brennan and Pillatsch (5-5), with Joe Spano’s three hits leading the way.
His fourth-inning throwing error, which allowed the Huskies to score their final two runs, serving as motivation, Ryan Jones finally brought the Warriors even in the sixth with a solo homer to center.
Jones’ only hit set the stage for Waubonsie Valley to load the bases with no outs in the seventh off Pillatsch, eventually leading to Price’s game-winning sacrifice fly.
“The previous two at-bats, (Brennan) had gotten behind with me on curveballs,” Jones said. “So I was looking curveball to start the at-bat, but then he fell behind and when he got 3-1, I was sitting fastball and he left it up in the zone and I just hit it.”
Christian Barczi and Steve Dudas combined to knock in five runs for the Huskies, who erased a 3-0 deficit with one swing as Dudas cleared the bases with a three-run double off Petersen in the second.
Barczi, who went 2-for-4, tied the game at 4-4 with a RBI triple off Petersen in the third and it was his chopper to Jones that led to the error and the two runs and the 7-4 Huskies’ lead.
“We definitely wanted to jump on (Everts) because we had runners on second and third with one out,” Barczi said. “We wanted one hit. We were one hit away from really opening up the game. But (Everts) pitched great. Came in and shut us down and give him props for that.”
Naperville North stranded seven runners on base and the missed opportunity in the fourth and a missed opportunity to get a run on a potential sacrifice fly in the third after Barczi’s triple loomed large.
“We left way too many people on base,” Huskies’ coach Carl Hunckler said. “When you do that with less than two outs, it’s going to create some problems. So we had a chance to bury them and we weren’t able to take control of that opportunity.”
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