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Sports

Plainfield North's Renzi Too Tough for Plainfield South Hitters to Overcome

In a cold baseball game between rival teams, North prevailed 4-1 and stayed unbeaten.

When ace Sean Renzi takes to the mound, the senior doesn’t usually need much support from his offense.

On a cold day that favored the pitchers, that was a good thing. Renzi (4-0) made due without it. The hosts found themselves in a low-scoring battle with rival and even trailed in the bottom of the fifth before eventually prevailing 4-1.

With Cougars pitcher Julian Clouse matching Renzi pitch for pitch for most of the day, South actually took a 1-0 in the top of the fourth. With two outs, Jarvis Williams coaxed a walk out of Renzi and the speedy center fielder came around to score without the benefit of a hit after stealing second, moving to third on a throwing error, and then racing home on a Renzi pitch that bounced back to the backstop.

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But that was all that Renzi would allow. The hard-throwing righty had 11 strikeouts, allowed just two hits and earned the win after his team scored twice in fifth and then added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth.

“Those last runs at the end really helped make that last inning easy,” said Renzi, who helped North stay unbeaten at 13-0 overall and 7-0 in the Southwest Prairie Conference. “I just pitched to contact, made them put the ball in play and I’ve got fielders behind me who can make the plays.”

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The Cougars (9-5, 4-3) just couldn’t quite make enough plays themselves to hand North its first loss of the year. A hit batsmen and an infield single — followed by a sac bunt from Evan Whaley – gave the Tigers two runners in scoring position with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. That’s when Caleb Kissel lifted a fly ball near the right field line that Ryan Turk chased down but then dropped, allowing two runs to score, including the eventual game-winner.

South coach Phil Bodine was happy with the way Clouse pitched, but not so happy with his team’s defense late in the game, when that 1-0 lead turned into a 4-1 loss.

“If we make routine plays, we may be sitting here 1-0 (winners),” he said. “We’re not good enough to beat these types of teams if we don’t make routine plays.”

Joe Cresta’s line single to center started a 2-run insurance rally by South in the sixth. Patrick Cashman added a bunt single in the frame and Matt Fenza had an RBI ground out as the Tigers sealed the victory.

From there, Renzi finished off the visitors.

“I felt like I was throwing pretty good today,” he said. ”After the second inning I kept the ball down and was throwing hard strikes.”

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