Sports
Downers Grove South Topples Top-Seed Plainfield North
Downers Grove South 6, Plainfield North 4. Jake Wolf's home run, pitching of Nick Burdi, Matt Wivinis send Mustangs to sectional title game Saturday.
NAPERVILLE – After watching his team’s ace, Louisville recruit Nick Burdi, allow the tying run to score in Wednesday’s Class 4A Neuqua Valley Sectional semifinal game against Plainfield North, Downers Grove South senior Jake Wolf knew he had to do something.
The top-seeded Tigers had just tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth with a pair of runs off of Burdi. Wolf responded by taking the second pitch of the sixth inning from Plainfield North pitcher Brian Evak over the right-field fence.
That, and two stellar innings of relief from Matt Wivinis, keyed the fifth-seeded Mustangs’ 6-4 upset. Downers South will await the winner of Thursday’s other semifinal between Neuqua Valley and Providence Saturday for the sectional championship at 11 a.m.
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“Burdi is such an amazing pitcher and he’s been awesome for us all year,” Wolf said. “They tied it up and I was like, ‘I need to do something to break their momentum.’ The first pitch, they threw a curveball. They followed it back with a fastball. I saw it and just drove it to right field. My plan to was to hit everything to right field [where the wind was howling out].”
It didn’t appear the Mustangs (25-13) would need any late-inning heroics after their hot start against the Tigers (31-3).
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DGS took advantage of a pair of Plainfield North errors to plate four unearned runs in the top of the first and chase starter Patrick Cashman after he retired only one batter.
“Whenever you come out in a game like this and you can score four runs early, that was a huge lift for us,” Burdi said. “I was able to relax and go out there and pitch.”
Burdi (6-1), projected to be a high pick in Monday’s Major League Baseball draft, wasn’t his usual dominant self over his five innings but he battled for the win.
He was hit by a line drive on the middle finger of his pitching hand by the first batter he faced and threw in the mid-80s most of the day with his fastball, lower than his customary low-90s. He struck out six and walked one while allowing four runs on eight hits.
“Burdi didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled,” said Downers South coach Darren Orel. “Sometimes his expectations are a little bit above and beyond the other guys. I think it’s more hats off to [Plainfield North] than Nick not being Nick. That’s a good team.”
A two-run double from Evan Whaley in the fourth after the inning was kept alive on a close play at second cut the Downers South lead to 4-2. Then in the fifth, Plainfield North star Sean Renzi crushed a leadoff home run, and Kurt Palandech singled and scored on a Joe Pendolino double to tie the game 4-4.
“I felt once we got back to 4-4 that we had the momentum,” Plainfield North coach John Darlington said. “We just couldn’t capitalize on it. We left one up [to Wolf] and the guy hit it out to right and that kind of took all the steam out of it for us.
"I was happy with the way we battled back. It easily could have snowballed on us and ran it to 10-0 or 12-0, but it didn’t. Our kids stayed in there against a great pitcher.”
The Tigers’ seniors end their careers with 61 wins the past two seasons, setting the stage for future success.
“We have nothing to hang our heads about,” Darlington said. “We had a great year, 31 wins, we’ve had a tremendous season. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We played our butts off today.”
Downers South, meanwhile, will look for its second sectional title Saturday. The first came in 2005.
“From the beginning of the year, we knew that we had the talent to make a run in the postseason,” Burdi said. “I’m just happy that we can come out and keep winning ballgames.”
