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Geneva turns back West Aurora
Mary Beth Nolan~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: July 19, 2011 10:30PM
The summer season of high school baseball has a far more laid-back vibe than the regular season in the spring.
But once the summer state series begins play, the intensity gets cranked up again and the feel is much more similar to what teams will experience next spring.
That’s why Geneva’s 5-4 St. Charles East Regional quarterfinal win over West Aurora Tuesday took on more significance than the rest of the summer slate.
The fourth-seeded Vikings will face No. 1 seed St. Charles North at St. Charles East in the second semifinal game Wednesday at 4 p.m. The first semifinal will pit Harlem against Batavia at 1 p.m. Both games are at St. Charles East. The championship game will be Thursday at St. Charles East at 4 p.m.
“The summer playoffs are just like the spring season,” Geneva winning pitcher Jordan Touro said. “It’s a big difference. The regular season in the summer is so laid back, not intense. Then you get to this, and it’s way more intense.”
Touro was the beneficiary of some early offense from the Vikings (18-9-2) before a combination of an awkward landing on the mound that tweaked his hip and the extreme heat wore him down in the sixth.
The Vikings built a 5-1 lead to that point. After Marco Gaurnizo scored the tying run on a Richie Renner double for West Aurora in the third — making it 1-1 — the Vikings exploded. A two-run single from Matt Williams followed by a Jake Swiderski RBI double in the third made it 4-1. Bobby Hess singled and scored on an error in the fourth to make it 5-1.
“It felt 10 times better than having a 1-0 lead, because you can work a lot more on your pitches and it’s not as intense,” Touro said. “With the heat, it can take it out of you, so having the game more intense is much worse.”
Touro wilted in the sixth, and the Blackhawks (21-8-1) took full advantage. He allowed three runs while recording only one out. Eric Bauer’s RBI single off reliever Mike Trimble cut the lead to 5-4 with the bases loaded and only one out.
“We had the top of the order coming up with (Adam Lipscomb) and Richie, so we were feeling really good, especially with the way they were swinging the bat this summer,” West Aurora coach John Reeves said. “They made some plays defensively. That changed the outcome of innings.”
The biggest of those plays ended the Blackhawks’ threat. Hess made a diving stab of Renner’s line drive to left to end the inning and keep Geneva in the lead. Jeff Konrad, who relieved Trimble, stayed on to record the save in the seventh and send the Vikings to the regional semifinals.
“We had just moved him into the gap, thinking (Renner) was going to pull the ball, and he hits a banana down the line,” Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. “Bob’s so fast that you can move him and he can make up a lot of ground.”
Regardless of how important people think the summer season is while they are in it, once tournament play begins the switch is flipped and that’s no different for Geneva.
“When you get further in this tournament, it shows the teams that have some depth,” Hahn said. “I think it’s important for momentum (for the spring). Nobody’s going to remember records, but I think internally, you build that momentum and the expectation of winning.”
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