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Defense does not rest as Minooka wins
Updated: May 18, 2011 8:28PM
If not for Minooka junior right fielder Joe Vallera’s perfect throw to the plate to gun down a runner attempting to score, Plainfield Central would have done no worse than tie in the top of the fifth inning.
With a runner on third and one out in the top of the sixth, Minooka played its infield in attempting to prevent the tying run from scoring.
Central shortstop Kyle Hunsinger, who enjoyed an excellent defensive day himself, ripped a shot up the middle. Minooka junior shortstop Tyler Thorson dove to his left, gloved the ball and threw out Hunsinger while holding courtesy runner Chris Edgar at third base.
For good measure, the Indians ended the game on another gem, Thorson charging a slow hopper and firing wide and high. Senior first baseman Sean Macko got off the bag, went up for the ball and came down and tagged Joe Sparacio for the final out.
Two Southwest Prairie adversaries that had played an ugly game Tuesday (14-9 Minooka victory) turned the tables Wednesday. Thanks to the defensive gems, Minooka survived 3-2 in an hour and a half.
“Yesterday, 2 hours, 45 minutes and a defensive debacle, and now a game half that length,” Indians coach Jeff Petrovic said.
“Yesterday was messy,” Central coach Bob Dobbertin said. “Today was a nice and clean game, well fought by both teams.”
“We had three great defensive plays,” Petrovic said. “It’s nice to see the kids listening and following what you say.”
Petrovic pointed to another key, the Indians (18-14, 11-9) scoring in the first inning to lead 1-0.
“Thorson hustled to get from first to third on Dakota Brown’s single to right, and we scored because Brown hustled to break up the double play (on Macko’s fielder’s choice),” he said. “That was key. Otherwise, we threw strikes and played solid defense.”
Minooka sophomore left-hander Josh Mitchell had no three-up, three-down innings, but he was ahead 3-0 when Central (8-20, 4-16) bunched five singles to score twice in the fifth. Sparacio and Eric DeLoach singled in runs after Vallera gunned down a potential run on Nick Woltkamp’s single, with catcher Eric Nurczyk blocking the plate beautifully.
Then, with junior right-hander Carson Neushwander on in relief in the sixth, Thorson’s diving stop saved a run.
“It was a routine ball but we were playing in and he (Hunsinger) hit it hard,” Thorson said. “I thought the guy on third would go home. When he didn’t, I threw to first. We work on that kind of play every day at practice.”
All of that helped make a tough-luck loser of Wildcats junior right-hander Anthony Cunniff, who went the distance. He allowed six hits, three by Alex Bebar, including two doubles. Bebar doubled and scored in the second inning on Nurczyk’s single, and Nurczyk also drove in a run in the fourth.
“Anthony (Cunniff) had a great game early in the season against Minooka and did again today,” Dobbertin said.
Mark Young, Woltkamp and Sparacio had two hits for Central.
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