Neuqua Valley takes aim at Providence

Updated: May 31, 2011 6:34PM

After watching his team dispatch Wheaton North with a 7-0 shutout last July 22 and win the program’s first summer state tournament regional title, Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner immediately took stock of the significance of that accomplishment.

“We told these kids our school has never done that before and now this group has done something our school has never done. Good for them,” Renner said after junior right-hander Nick Blackburn tossed a complete game at the Falcons last July. “It’s something that they can take with them. Each year, you like to have your kids walk away with something. And these guys can now. Who knows what’s gonna happen (this week), but I think it says a little bit of what might happen next spring. Who knows?”

While the Wildcats came up two wins short of claiming their first-ever summer state tournament championship, Renner’s charges have proven him to be somewhat of a prophet this spring by rattling off 25 victories through last Saturday’s 7-3 victory over Lockport and claiming the program’s sixth regional title and the first since 2009.

Highlighting Renner’s 13-year tenure at the school are the 93 combined victories from 2007-09, which includes winning the program’s first state championship in 2007, courtesy of a 5-1 victory over New Trier in the Class AA title game, and coming away with a third-place finish in Class 4A the very next year.

But it’s the last game that the Wildcats’ 10-member senior class played in 2009 that carries a lot of significance this week as the program plays possibly the biggest game in its history since its 7-1 defeat to Prairie Ridge in a 2008 Class 4A state semifinal.

For the second time in three years, third-seeded Neuqua Valley and No. 2 Providence stand in the way of each other in a sectional semifinal when the two programs meet in the second Neuqua Valley Class 4A Sectional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

However, circumstances have changed quite a bit since the Celtics came away with a 3-2 victory over the Wildcats in the 2009 Lockport Class 4A Sectional semifinal.

For one, Neuqua Valley pinned the first of Providence’s two losses in the 2010 Phil Lawler Summer Classic and Providence isn’t the upstart 16th seed it was two years ago when it eliminated fifth-seeded Neuqua Valley.

“We didn’t hit,” said Celtics coach Mark Smith when asked what he remembered from the first of two 3-2 setbacks last July. “In fact, I think it was about the fourth inning (Saturday against Benet), I said there’s something about Lisle that when we get into Lisle, we don’t hit. So I hope we hit better in Naperville than we do (in) Lisle.”

Led by six seniors who have signed with various Division I programs around the country, Providence (33-3) was anointed as the team to beat from the start of the season when the Chicago Sun-Times and Prep Baseball Report had it perched atop their respective preseason rankings.

With the goal of being able to play at home in the sectional accomplished, the Wildcats now turn their attention to trying to slay the top-ranked team in the state and the overwhelming favorite to win the Class 4A crown in Joliet on June 11.

“As a competitor, if you’re a true competitor, you want to play the best team on their best day,” Renner said. “And go at it with everything you got and let the chips fall where they may.”

Perhaps more impressively, Neuqua Valley (25-10-1) emerged from Lockport as regional champion without the services of a pair of starters — senior catcher Jeff Samuel and junior center fielder Jack Amaro — and the man who beat the Celtics last July 26, senior right-hander Kevin Hodgman, who allowed two runs on just five hits in tossing a complete game.

Samuel broke his ankle while playing basketball during the final week of the regular season, Amaro suffered a concussion in the team’s final regular-season game and Hodgman has been dealing with back issues.

Blackburn fired a complete game at the Porters last Saturday, which came off the heels of the Wildcats rallying for a 9-6 victory over crosstown rival Waubonsie Valley a week ago.

Aiming to make the program’s first sectional final appearance since 2008, Renner will put the ball in the hands of one of four guys: Blackburn (4-3), Alex Bucz (7-1), Jason Avallone (4-0) or Alan Foresta (3-0), who earned the save against the Warriors last Wednesday in relief of Bucz and Avallone.

Smith will counter with one of two men: senior left-hander Matt Trowbridge, who has signed with Central Michigan, or Northwestern-bound senior right-hander Brandon Magallones.

Trowbridge (7-0) and Magallones (6-2) headline a staff that also includes Indiana-bound lefty Collin McEnery, who started the Celtics’ last sectional final trip — a 5-4 loss to Naperville Central in 2009 — and took the loss in last summer’s meeting with the Wildcats. “We’re definitely fired up about (getting a rematch),” said Trowbridge, who beat Neuqua Valley two years ago in the Lockport Sectional semifinal with a complete-game four-hitter that saw him strike out eight. “That was a very, very bad day for us. I think a lot of us were angry after that game, so it’s gonna be exciting.

“I think a lot of us are gonna be fired up to go and be ready to play.”

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