The presence of several arms returning from a 28-win team in 2015 figured to be an asset at some point in 2016 for Waubonsie Valley.
With Western Michigan-bound Brandon Petersen likely done for the year, the time for the Warriors to utilize said depth has come.
Alex Schram certainly seems ready to answer that call.
After missing just over a month with a broken pinkie suffered in gym class and making his third career start, Schram was brilliant on Thursday against Naperville North.
Schram’s first career complete game helped Waubonsie Valley secure a 5-2 victory over Naperville North while helping it keep pace in the DuPage Valley Conference race.
The junior right-hander settled down after spotting the Huskies (12-13, 10-10) a two-run lead by scattering seven hits while striking out a career-high five.
“I just tried to do what my coaches told me to do – just throw strikes, keep it over the plate,” said Schram, who moved to 3-0 on the year having just thrown 19 innings. “That keeps us in the game.
“(Thursday), my fastball wasn’t there. But I have three pitches, so I’ve able to locate all of them.”
The Warriors (20-8, 14-6) – winners of 20 games for a third straight year – has run off eight straight victories within the DVC to find themselves in a first-place tie with Naperville Central.
Much like it did during Wednesday’s 10-4 victory at Naperville North, two-out runs proved pivotal for Waubonsie Valley.
A day after tallying eight two-out runs in a eight-run third on Wednesday, Quinton Zielke’s two-out single off Matt Schwartz in a three-run third gave the Warriors the lead for good.
“It’s all mental, honestly, for me,” Zielke said. “So I just try to stay calm and I feel like I do better when the pressure’s on. So just try to stay calm at the plate and just make whatever pitch is coming.”
Two more two-out runs came home to score two innings later as a dropped popup in shallow left gave Schram a 5-2 cushion to work with.
The ability to not let opposing pitchers take a breath has been vital for the Warriors as they’ve worked their way back into the DVC race after being swept by Naperville Central April 22-23.
“I’ll tell you: in the beginning of the year – when we were scuffling – we went weeks without that big two-out hit,” Waubonsie Valley coach Bryan Acevedo said. “(Wednesday), I don’t know if I’ve seen anything like that before. Nine straight guys got in (after two outs), Everybody in that inning got a hit, so the guy who reached on the error got a hit to leadoff the inning, came up later.
“We just seem to be getting that timely hit right now and it’s not just one guy up at the plate. It’s been a multitude of guys, which is encouraging moving forward getting the offense going.”
Schwartz (4-4) went the distance for the Huskies, just like Schram did for the Warriors, and was charged with five runs – three earned – on eight hits.
After sending shockwaves throughout the conference with its sweep of Naperville Central last weekend, Naperville North’s defense hasn’t exactly helped its pitching staff at times.
For Huskies’ coach Carl Hunckler, as much as Schram’s performance stood out, his team’s inability to minimize innings stood out even more.
“I think the big thing with us the last two days and what we talked about – we played charity and they took advantage of it,” Hunckler said. “We should have been out of innings. We didn’t make plays defensively and good teams will take advantage of that. They took advantage of it. They put the ball in play. They hit the ball hard. I feel bad for our pitchers the last two days because they threw a lot of pitches because defensively we were poor.”
[shareprints gallery_id=”59598″ gallery_type=”squares” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”small” image_padding=”2″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” comments=”false” sharing=”true”]PURCHASE PHOTOS FROM THIS GALLERY
