Execution Carries Romeoville Past Plainfield Central

It was all about execution for the Romeoville baseball team Tuesday afternoon on an unseasonably warm day. The Spartans picked up single runs in the second and third against visiting Plainfield Central, and then framed their 6-1 Southwest Prairie victory with a four-spot in the fourth.

The Spartans’ first three runs — all Jordan Pemble would need in his complete-game victory — were the result of flawless execution. Matt Gillis’ second-inning sacrifice fly plated Casey Moll, who led off the inning with a walk and moved to third when Pemble roped a ground-rule double to right-center field.

Moll would deliver the second run with a two-out single to left in the third, and Matt Venn had a brilliant bunt single on a suicide squeeze to score pinch-runner Frank Rooks.

“It’s nice for us to execute (properly),” Romeoville coach Tony Smith said. “We’ve been struggling with guys in scoring position. We play for one (run) in every inning. If we get more for that, then it’s a bonus.”

The Spartans (.9-11 overall, 7-9 in the league) edged closer to .500 on the season while dropping the Wildcats to 6-18, 4-15. Romeoville leadoff batter Vidal Gonzalez scored from second when Moll had a seeing-eye single between short and third to double the Spartans’ lead in the second.

“That’s what we need to do if we want to go far in the playoffs,” Moll said of his two-out, run-scoring single. “Everything came up good (that at-bat). We knew we wanted to get back on track with the regional coming up. It was nice to see a fastball."

Pemble, meanwhile, took an unconventional route in twirling his fourth complete game of the season. The senior right-hander and staff ace failed to retire the side in order once, but the Wildcats’ aggressiveness on the base paths proved costly.

“Jordan didn’t have his best stuff today,” Smith said. “He was behind (in the count) the whole game.”

Romeoville catcher Justin Hurdle recorded two assists on a caught stealing and pick off at first base, though, and Pemble added an assist when a potential Plainfield base-stealer was nabbed at second.

“We had chances to push across some runs,” Plainfield Central coach Bob Dobbertin said. “We ran ourselves our of some innings. You can’t do that when you run yourselves into outs.”

Anthony Gladstone personally rounded out the Spartans’ four-run fourth that essentially made the final score anticlimactic. The junior had a two-run single to up the Spartans’ spread to 5-0 and later came around to score, taking second on the throw home, third when the relay was mishandled and subsequently home on a wild pitch.

Pemble, who lost his shutout with two outs in the sixth inning, led the Spartans’ eight-hit attack by going 3-for-3.

“About a week ago, I changed my (batting) stance,” Pemble said. “I have been hitting very well for the last week.”

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified RHS catcher Justin Hurdle. We apologize for the error.