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Sports
SPC season opens in dramatic fashion : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisSPC season opens in dramatic fashion
| Oswego baseball team tops Plainfield North 1-0 with game-winner in bottom of seventh
| by Christine Bolin
| 4/5/2012
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For the past three seasons, the Plainfield North baseball team has dominated the Southwest Prairie Conference.
The Tigers have gone 61-2, including two flawless seasons in league play.
It's been four years since Oswego has beaten Plainfield North, but that changed on Tuesday when the Panthers topped the Tigers, 2-1, in thrilling fashion at home in the SPC opener for both teams.
The Panthers improved to 6-3 overall and gave Plainfield North (6-1) its first loss of the season. Both teams went back at it on Wednesday, but results were unavailable at press time. The three-game series concludes today, Thursday, at Oswego at 4:30 p.m.
"It's a big deal, but if we want to contend for the conference championship, we can't act like this was a fluke and we aren't on the same level," Oswego head coach Chris Neitzel said. "We are happy with the win, but we still have two games to go. I feel really good about taking one of the next two games with them, and that's what we want to do. It feels great to beat them because they've really had their way with us the past few years, so it's nice to turn that around. But we have to stay level-headed, and maybe good things will happen. We'll see what we can do."
With the score tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, Oswego junior outfielder Brendon O'Dea led off with a triple to right field.
With one out and junior catcher Jose Camacho on first after he was intentionally walked, junior designated hitter John Malatia put the ball in play. His hit went to first, and O'Dea raced home. The ball was thrown from first for a potential play at the plate, but O'Dea beat the throw and slid in for the winning run.
"That was pure speed," Neitzel said of O'Dea's triple. "He's so darn fast...and Johnny, he's a gamer."
Plainfield North scored its run in the first inning, when Caleb Kissel led off with a walk, got to third on Zach Zyburt's double and scored on Kurt Palandech's sacrifice fly RBI.
That was the only walk and hit Oswego senior starting pitcher Parker Meek gave up all game. He pitched all seven innings and finished with eight strikeouts.
"This was a pretty big accomplishment for me because last year, I lost 6-2 (against Plainfield North), and I had that in the back of my mind," Meek said. "It's a great feeling to get the win, knowing their history in the conference and with their record, it made the win so much better."
"Parker pitched a gem today," Neitzel added. "I'm very happy for him now. We probably have the best defensive team we've ever had behind him."
Oswego tied the game in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Camacho singled, got to second when Malatia was walked and scored on junior first baseman Chad Burdo's RBI single with two outs.
Notes: In four games prior to Plainfield North, Oswego went 2-2 with wins over Aurora Central Catholic and East Aurora.
In the 3-1 loss against Morris on March 29, the Panthers got their run across in the sixth after the Redskins scored all their runs. Senior infielder Brandon Lentz drove in the run that junior outfielder Nick Wernke scored.
On March 30, Bolingbrook topped Oswego, 12-9, after scoring 10 total runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings. Down 12-6, however, the Panthers scored three times in the top of the seventh but it was not enough.
O'Dea scored twice, posted two hits and two RBIs. Malatia had two RBIs and senior infielder Tim Wodzisz tallied a pair of hits and scored once.
Against ACC on Saturday, Oswego won, 6-1. Junior Alex Milne (2-0) earned the win on the mound (10 strikeouts, one hit) while Meek, Malatia and sophomore outfielder Bryce Holm each had two hits. Camacho posted two RBIs.
In the 6-1 victory over East Aurora on Monday, junior pitcher Kelse Gengler scattered five hits and fanned six batters for Oswego.
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