Baseball: Neuqua Exacts Revenge On Waubonsie

LOCKPORT – After watching his team top rival in the Class 4A Lockport Regional semifinals Wednesday, baseball coach Robin Renner described what teams need to win postseason baseball games.

“I’ve been in enough games to know that in order to advance, things have to happen in your favor that you can’t explain,” Renner said.

The Wildcats’ 9-6 win was loaded with those types of moments.

Neuqua scored seven runs in the third inning thanks to nine straight hits, something that neither coach could remember ever seeing, turned a 1-2-3 double play to escape from a bases-loaded jam in the fourth and turned a bizarre 2-3 double play on a tapper in front of the plate that limited the damage in Waubonsie’s fifth inning.

The third-inning rally for third-seeded Neuqua (24-10), playing without star catcher Jeff Samuel (broken ankle), started with one out and Samuel’s replacement, sophomore No. 9 hitter Dylan Goss, at the plate. His single ignited the run. Nick Oleskowicz and Nick Iarrobino followed with singles of their own. Then Tanner Giesel cracked a two-run double to cut Waubonsie’s lead to 3-2.

“Once we got it going, hitting is contagious,” Giesel said. “The first three guys ahead of me got a hit, and I knew I was due. I ended up getting a hit. My buddies behind me ended up getting hits and that really drove us. Before that, we were pretty much dead.”

Ryan O’Keefe followed with a booming two-run home run that gave the Wildcats the lead for good and set the tone for the rest of the game. Andrew Skowronski added a two-run single later in the inning on the ninth and final hit of the string.

“It was a game-changer, it really was,” said Giesel, who was along for the ride on O’Keefe’s homer. “After that we got excited. We knew we were going to win. We got more confident.”

But Waubonsie (20-13) wasn’t about to go quietly. The Warriors were the No. 14 seed in the sectional, but after an 0-6 start to the season, they finished 20-7, including a three-game sweep of Neuqua en route to the Upstate Eight Valley championship.

The Warriors set the tone early with three unearned runs in the first, keyed by Harry Vickers’ two-run double. But in the fourth, with the bases loaded and nobody out, Neuqua reliever Jason Avallone came on to strike out starting pitcher Mitch Stefani (3-4) and induce a 1-2-3 double play to escape.

In the fifth, Waubonsie added three more runs to cut the lead to 7-6. Kyle Limanowski was hit in the helmet with a pitch to drive in the first run. Ryan Vega followed with a tap in front of the plate. The umpire ruled it a double play as Goss stepped on the plate and fired to first to compete the play. Vickers followed with a two-run single but the damage was limited and Neuqua still had the lead.

“We had missed opportunities and that’s baseball,” Waubonsie coach Dan Fezzuoglio said. “The opportunities they had, they scored. They had nine hits in a row. I haven’t seen that in high school baseball. We didn’t move the ball in situations when we needed to. That’s just the way it goes.”

Neuqua tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the sixth to make a winner of Avallone (4-0). Alan Foresta came on to record the save.

Neuqua awaits the winner of Thursday's Lockport/Plainfield Central game Saturday at 10 a.m. in the regional championship game.