Six innings into his team’s game with highly regarded Plainfield North on Friday, Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner made a proclamation.
No matter what transpired in the Tigers’ seventh, he had seen a “rock star” effort on the mound from Mason LeBreck.
LeBreck, primarily used as a reliever all year, made one hell of a starting debut for Neuqua Valley in holding the Class 4A Oswego Sectional’s top seed at bay.
Unfortunately, Connor Peplow was just a tad bit better.
On his way to throwing a complete game, Peplow struck out 12 to help Plainfield North best LeBreck and Neuqua Valley, 1-0, in Naperville.
“I’ve been closing a lot, so not much,” said Peplow, a Illinois State commit, of his experiences of being locked in a pitchers’ duel. “But my coach wants me to start a lot, so he’s starting getting me in the rotation – like fourth man. So not much, but I’m getting there.”
The best opportunity for Neuqua Valley (20-13) to get to him came in the sixth after Eric Nelson and Kevin Ringlein led off the inning with singles.
But Peplow bore down and retired the next three hitters in succession to end the threat.
He fanned at least two Wildcats in four of his seven innings, including punching out the side in the first and getting his four outs via the strikeout.
“My slider definitely was working a lot,” Peplow said. “I made sure it was blowing away, so many guys went after it and that’s how most of my strikeouts went.”
Peplow certainly made a believer out of Renner with his 108-pitch performance, which saw 79 pitches go for strikes.
“That was the best performance that we’ve seen all year,” Renner said of Peplow, who scattered six hits. “I’d say the (Ryan) Eiermann game (on April 11) and that one were interchangeable. But far, those two were the best. (Peplow) was really good – three pitches for strikes, about 87, 88 miles an hour. But I thought he was really good and we had some chances and we just couldn’t (score).”
LeBreck, who had thrown just 13 2/3 innings coming into Friday, struck out eight and was touched up just once – a two-out Justin Yeager RBI single in the third.
“I was more surprised than probably anybody, considering I normally just relieve,” LeBreck said of his first start of the year. “So it was good to get a start and it was good to be toe-to-toe with (Peplow).
“Curveball definitely was working. Fastball was working when I could locate it. But the curveball was definitely the No. 1 pitch.”
The lone uprising of the game for Plainfield North (27-2) was set up by Alex Steinbach’s leadoff single to start the third.
From there, a sacrifice bunt from Anthony Agne moved him over to second before Yeager came through one batter later.
Yeager had two of the three hits for the Tigers, with Steinbach accounting for the other one.
After Yeager led off the sixth with a single, LeBreck proceeded to roll a 5-4-3 double play to help the Wildcats get out of that inning unscathed.
“His performance was as good as any pitcher we’ve had all year,” Renner said of LeBreck. “That was amazing. So proud of him.”
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