Cuzzone, Warriors blank Lancers

Updated: May 20, 2011 7:25PM

The muddied waters of the Upstate Eight Valley cleared some Thursday when Waubonsie Valley shut out Lake Park 10-0 in six innings, clinching at least a share of the conference title.

Entering the finale of a three-game set, the Warriors, Lancers and the South Elgin Storm had an opportunity to win the championship. At the end of the day, only Lake Park was eliminated as the Storm beat Bartlett 17-9. South Elgin will face Batavia this Friday in its final conference game.

“The key thing is our senior leadership, just a great group of senior leaders that at 0-6 really kept their heads,” Fezzuoglio said. “Even after we lost three at South Elgin and we thought ‘Oh, we’re out of this thing,’ we just started to play and get some momentum. It’s a conference championship.”

Waubonsie finished 17-8 in the Valley. South Elgin is 16-8 heading into today’s action. The Warriors went 20-4 in the conference last season and finished in second place.

“We knew from past years we’d be able to get back into it and we proved it again,” Warriors senior Kyle Limanowski said. “Our group of guys is awesome. Everybody gets along, so there are no problems in school or out of school. The past few years we’ve had slow starts just like this and we’ve proven again and again we can come back from that.”

Waubonsie (18-12) was able to blow out the Lancers thanks to a combination of excellent pitching from starter Joey Cuzzone (3-1), timely hitting and a Lake Park defense that committed five errors.

Lake Park (20-13, 13-10) left the bases loaded in each of the first two innings before Cuzzone settled down to allow just one hit over the final four.

“That turned the game around,” Fezzuoglio said of Cuzzone’s magic in the first two innings. “If they have any of those balls drop they get going.”

Defensively, the Lancers unraveled with two outs in the second with the Warriors leading 1-0. James Palasz reached on an error in between two strikeouts, bringing Chris Anderson to the plate. Anderson doubled home Palasz, then reached third on a wild pitch and scored when Lancers second baseman Dean Kise booted a ground ball by Eric Josupait.

Mike Murphy followed with an infield single that Kise stopped, but he couldn’t pick up the ball, allowing Josupait to score, making it 3-0.

Tyler Josupait drove in Murphy with a single, which brought up Limanowski. The right fielder then launched an offering by Lake Park starter Mark Pall (2-1) deep over the left-center field fence, making it 7-0.

“What a two-out rally,” Fezzuoglio said. “We had so many hits that inning, which was huge too. We’ve been waiting for that all year.”

Limanowski’s homer was his eighth on the season, tying him for the single-season school record. He went 3-for-3 with four RBI and a walk.

“I feel amazing right now,” he said. “This is the best I’ve ever felt.”

Lake Park reliever Eric Vatch allowed three runs over the final four innings, including a solo homer to Harry Vickers and two unearned runs. Of the Warriors 10 runs, just two were earned.

The Warriors will end their regular season on Saturday with a non-conference game against St. Francis before beginning regional play Monday against Romeoville.

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