Offense not hard to come by as Geneva takes down Wheaton Warrenville South in back-and-forth, extra-inning win

WHEATON — Geneva has given coach Brad Wendell his fair share of scares early in the 2025 season.

From four walk-off victories to multiple come-from-behind wins and even last-second losses, he’s seen it all so far in the young season.

So it was no surprise to him that his team would pull a similar stunt against Wheaton Warrenville South to open DuKane Conference play.

After allowing the Tigers to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh to push the game to extras, the Vikings put up four runs in the top of the eighth inning and held on in the bottom half to secure a 13-10 victory in a firefight to open conference play.

“I just love the way that our guys were competing with every pitch,” Wendell said. “This conference tests you every time, to the last out, it’s so difficult. Wheaton Warrenville South is a great program, and I’m glad we came out with a win.”

After Mason Bruesch gave the Vikings (10-3, 1-0 DuKane) a 10-9 lead in the top of the eighth with an RBI single, Wendell reminded his players of the importance of plating runs.

“Before we got here, I told them that every pitch matters and every run matters in this conference,” Wendell said. “And they proved that right in this game. We had that mentality early on, and we just stayed the course and let the players do what they do.”

It was a sentiment Michael Toole took to heart.

With the bases loaded, Toole unloaded on a fastball, sending it straight to the left-field fence for a two-run double to extend the lead to 12-9.

“I just trying to hit a fastball, and that’s what I did,” Toole said. “I was trying to hit it to the opposite field, but I was happy to drive in some guys.”

Toole finished the game with three hits, two going for doubles, and two RBIs. He was one of two players (Nick Price) to record three hits and one of seven Vikings players to finish the game with multiple hits to help the team collect 20 in the game.

“Ever since the first game where we laid an egg, we’ve been really good,” Toole said. “Defense and pitching is usually good, but our hitting was really good this game. Usually we just get a timely hit to get the close win, but it felt good to score a lot.”

The Tigers (2-10, 0-1) matched the Vikings’ offense for the most part. WW South jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the third inning after plating five in the frame. They also came from behind to score three runs in the bottom of the seventh, with a two-run single from Jacob Conover knotting the game at 9-9.

Even in the final frame, the Tigers managed to put the tying run at the plate, but couldn’t get the hit needed.

“They just kept fighting and never wanted to give up,” Tigers coach John Schermann said. “We’ve been in every game we’ve played so far. They just fight and trust one another to give an at-bat to pass along.

“We’re not walking out of here upset.”

A lot of the Tigers’ offensive production came from the bottom three hitters in their lineup. Reece Franks finished with four hits and two RBIs, Aidan Quartz drove in three runs off of three hits, and Yiannis Dozonelos had a pair of both hits and RBIs.

“I keep telling them that if our bottom half of the order doesn’t fight to turn it around to the top, who knows what happens in this game,” Schermann said. “We had a lot of good at-bats. Could’ve been better defensively, but we’ll keep fighting.”