Wildcats put on hitting display in win

Updated: May 10, 2011 9:36PM

The weather couldn’t have turned warm on a better day for Neuqua Valley’s baseball team.

A day after a disappointing loss to Bartlett in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division, the Wildcats desperately needed some offense and a win over South Elgin to keep pace with the Storm in the title chase. With the warmer weather, the Wildcats heated up on offense with a 16-hit barrage that included home runs from Chris Medhurst, Jeff Samuel, and Jack Amaro for a 13-4 rout of South Elgin.

“It was disappointing to anyone involved,” Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner said about the Bartlett loss. “We were snakebit that whole day, and today was clearly tbe best day to hit all spring. We were fortunate we got some good pitches to hit and we had some guys who had some great at-bats.”

The win tied the Wildcats in the loss column with South Elgin in the division race. South Elgin is 10-6-1 and Neuqua Valley 8-6-1. The UEC schedule is 25 games.

The offensive explosion started with Medhurst’s second homer of the year leading off the second to center field, and Samuel made it back-to-back with a shot to left center. The wind aided both, but both likely would have gone out against the wind.

The Wildcats (16-6-1 overall) weren’t finished. They started another rally in the inning with two out against losing pitcher Eric Stazy (0-2), scoring three runs, Nick Oleskowicz’s single plated two and another scored on Tanner Giesel’s double.

The five-run inning was all Neuqua Valley pitcher Nick Blackburn would need. He allowed three in the fourth, one in the fifth and gave up just five hits over six innings to improve to 3-2. Blackburn struck out nine and walked one.

“You could tell the ball was really carrying out,” Blackburn said. “I just knew I had to keep the ball down and couldn’t let them hit it because obviously they would have done what we did if I left it up.”

The Storm (16-6-1) got three of its hits off Blackburn in the fourth, when one scored on Andrew Weedman’s single, another on Nathan Halas’ sacrifice fly to left and another on a wild pitch. But the only other run came on a wild pitch in the fifth and by then the Neuqua hitters got their second wind.

A four-hit, two-run fifth off Stazy was highlighted by Drew Bailey’s RBI double and Mike Bogar’s two-out, run-scoring single.

Neuqua Valley made it easy for Blackburn with a six-run sixth off reliever Ryan Ford, including Amaro’s three-run, two-out homer, an RBI single by Andrew Skowronski, and pinch-hitter Joey Grabarits’ RBI fielder’s choice.

“I got a lot of run support,” Blackburn said. “It gave me a lot more lenience on my pitches. I didn’t have to be perfect on each one.”

Amaro and Oleskowicz went 3-for-5, while Giesel, Medhurst and Skowronski had two hits each.

“Our location today was not where I wanted it,” South Elgin coach Jim Kating said of his pitchers. “We were up and on a day like today it will cost you. And it did. They did a good job with the bats.

“We had two bad innings, a 5 and a 6.”

The victory gave the Wildcats the season series over South Elgin 2-1.

“In order to stay with those guys, we’re really going to have to play good baseball going down the stretch here,” Renner said.

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