Hinsdale Central Edges Metea Valley In Nine Innings

Hinsdale Central - 3
Metea Valley - 2
(9 innings)

AURORA, IL - The No. 15 seeded Metea Valley Mustangs hosted No. 18 seed Hinsdale Central in the Darien Sectional on Tuesday and fans were treated to an old fashion pitchers duel that took nine innings to settle.

Metea Valley senior right-hander Andrew Cronin squared off with Hinsdale Central junior righty Kyle Wisch. Cronin and the Mustangs looked like they would get the best of the Red Devils early on as Cronin did his part with the bat to provide the early offense. With two outs and nobody on in the third, leadoff hitter Jake Kmiecik got it started with a sharp single up the middle. Sophomore Cade Sullivan followed suit with another line drive single to center, and a walk gave way to Cronin’s two out, two RBI single to center scoring Kmiecik and Sullivan.

The way Cronin was throwing the baseball, his two-run cushion appeared to be enough, but Hinsdale Central would not go away quietly. The Red Devils provided an answer in the top of the fifth, a leadoff error in center field ignited the inning for Central. Cronin gave up a pair of free bases by way of a walk and hit by pitch, that surrounded an infield pop out. With one away and the bases loaded, the Mustang hurler induced a weak ground ball back to the mound that he was able to cut down the lead runner at the plate, but that was it. Cronin looked poised to wiggle his way out of a fifth inning jam, but an inning ending groundball to short was unable to be handled and led to two Red Devil runs.

From then the momentum turned to Kyle Wisch, who was clearly in command at that point, retiring the next 10 in a row and the last 15 of 16 batters faced. Hinsdale Central got into the Mustang bullpen in the eighth, and led off the ninth with back to back doubles from Joey Malcolm and Ayden Head to score the go ahead run. Wisch nailed down the ninth in order, in eleven pitches, giving Hinsdale Central the 3-2 win in nine innings.

With the win Hinsdale Central advances to play Plainfield East, the the two seed in the Darien Sectional, at Hinsdale Central, the host site of the regional.

Statistical Highlights

• RHP Kyle Wisch (Hinsdale Central, 2019) - W, 9IP, 4H, 2ER, 8K, 2BB

• RHP Andrew Cronin (Metea Valley, 2018) - 7IP, 3H, 0ER, 9K, 1BB

• 3B Cade Sullivan (Metea Valley, 2020) - 2-for-4, R

• 3B Ayden Head (Hinsdale Central, 2019) - 1-for-4, 2B, RBI