Sports
Baseball: Mustangs Struggle In Loss To Wheaton North
Wheaton North 6, Downers South 1. Mustangs fall for the third time in four days as busy stretch continues.
DOWNERS GROVE – Downers Grove South’s baseball team entered the season ranked amongst the top teams in the state.
But following a trip to Arizona last week, a doubleheader against Hinsdale Central Saturday and Monday’s 6-1 non-conference loss to Wheaton North, the Mustangs need to catch their breath.
The loss dropped them to 4-4 overall, and they have dropped three of their last four games overall.
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“This is kind of a foreign position for us,” DGS coach Darren Orel said. “We’re not playing that well. Hopefully they’ll respond. We’ve had a long stretch, though. I’m not making excuses. That’s the first thing I told them, don’t you dare make an excuse, but we played seven games last week, flew across the country, got home at 11:30 at night, played a doubleheader Saturday and then right back here, with about a 50-degree temperature change. It might be a little bit too much for them.”
With one of the Chicago area’s top pitchers, Matt Wivinis, on the hill Monday, the Mustangs came in confident. But Wheaton North (3-2) came out swinging and Wivinis had trouble hitting his spots. The Falcons scored in each of the first three innings to build a 5-1 lead. The big blow was a two-run home run from Jake Schieber in the third. All told, Wivinis went six innings, allowing six runs on 10 hits. He struck out four and walked one to fall to 1-1 on the season.
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“They definitely got a hold of me a couple of times,” Wivinis said. “I couldn’t find the plate with my changeup. You can’t win with two pitches. That was really big. I couldn’t locate it. Normally, I can spot it on the outside part of the plate and get them to roll over it, but I couldn’t do it today.”
DGS got off to a quick start offensively against Wheaton North starter Eric Scandora (2-0). Kyle Engel led the game off with a triple and scored on a Nick Tenerelli single. But that wound up being the only damage the Mustangs could muster against the efficient Scandora.
The only other rally came in the fifth when Engle singled and Tenerelli doubled with two outs, but the Mustangs were unable to score again.
“He pitched very well against one of the better hitting teams that we’ll see all year,” Wheaton North coach Dan Schoessling said. “He got ahead of hitters, and he was throwing three or four pitches for strikes. If we can play good defense behind him, we’re going to be in good shape. For the most part, we did that today.”
The Mustangs have to get through one more game, Tuesday’s 4:30 p.m. home game against Hinsdale Central, before earning a much-needed break before Friday’s non-conference tilt with Naperville North.
“We’ve definitely been out of our routine a little bit,” Wivinis said. “Once we get a little bit of rest, we’ll be OK. We’ll be fine and be able to bounce back. We’ve had a long stretch.”
