Baseball: Behind Joe Guiliano’s complete game shutout, Plainfield North denies Yorkville SPC West title

YORKVILLE – Joe Guiliano projected an air of confidence as he stalked off the mound Thursday, a savoring of the big moment.

He’s known enough of them.

The Plainfield North senior was the starting shortstop on a supersectional team as a sophomore. He pitched the Tigers into a sectional last year.

“I think that’s what makes him good is he believes that he is good,” Plainfield North coach John Darlington said. “He’s a player, and he showed it today. I think in his brain he believes that he did what he was supposed to today.”

That belief was backed up by a brilliant performance.

Guiliano fired a complete game five-hitter, striking out six. Guiliano and visiting Plainfield North beat Yorkville 1-0 in the finale of a three-game series, and in the process denied the Foxes the Southwest Prairie West league championship.

Minooka, beating West Aurora 13-11 Thursday, claimed the league title on a head-to-head tiebreaker with Yorkville.

Guiliano (4-3), who threw 69 of 102 pitches for strikes, got a called third strike on a fastball for his sixth strikeout with the tying run at second base to end it.

“Every pitch was working for me today,” Guiliano said. “I struggled with my changeup a little, but as the game went on I found it more. I felt confident out there throwing first-pitch strikes, getting ahead of the batters.”

Yorkville (20-11, 11-4) put two runners on in the second inning, and loaded the bases in the third, but Guiliano bore down each time. He got two strikeouts sandwiched around two hit batters in the third inning. He kept dangerous Yorkville No. 3 hitter Kameron Yearsley off the bases, and got Kentucky commit Nate Harris to bang into an inning-ending double play after Jackson Roberts singled to lead off the Yorkville fifth.

“I just had to put the ball in play, and trust my fielders to let them make plays,” Guiliano said. “I want to be out there in that close of a game. That’s why I play the game. I want to be the guy who gets the team to win.”

Guiliano is certainly the guy Darlington wants with the ball with the game on the line. Plainfield North’s bullpen has lost seven games in the final at-bat, five in the last two weeks. But Guiliano held firm, even with traffic on the bases in five of seven innings.

“The first inning his ball was up a little bit, but once he got the ball down he was good. He’s our best pitcher, he just plays shortstop the other two days,” Darlington said. “He threw his changeup early to Yearsley and Harris, went away from it, came back to it, mixed his curveball good. He threw them for strikes, kept their hitters off-balance and the guys made plays for him.”

Plainfield North (15-15, 6-9), shut out three times in a five-game losing streak leading up to Thursday, twice this week by Yorkville, finally broke through in the fourth inning.

David Wick reached on an infield single leading off and stole second. With two outs, Kyle Darlington reached out and blooped a single to short center, bringing in Wick.

“All I needed was one,” Guiliano said. “I knew that going in.”

Yorkville sophomore Gabe Sanders did his part, holding Plainfield North to one run on five hits with five strikeouts over six innings. But Yorkville, which came in scoring 7.5 runs per game during a six-game winning streak and entered Thursday with a one-game lead in the conference race, was shut out for the first time this season.

“He [Guiliano] did what a good high school pitcher does. He got two pitches over consistently and he was able to mix up at any count,” Yorkville coach Tom Cerven said. “Today we fell back into some old habits that we started guessing at what was coming, not recognizing and a lot of early in the count curveballs. Ultimately, we didn’t have the quality at bats we needed throughout the game. We just didn’t see the ball. That happens from time to time, but unfortunate that it happened in a game with a lot at stake.”

A tough loss, but Cerven hopes his team can learn from it ahead of regionals next week.

“I told the guys this, and it’s not something you want to hear, you want to win conference, especially when you have it in your hands and control of it, but ultimately playing a game like this, with something at stake, we’ll learn from our mistakes,” Cerven said. “It hurts, it will sting for a while, but it doesn’t take away from the season we had and what is in front of us.

“Sanders, just like their kid, he was able to get enough of his curveball over to keep guys guessing. Anytime you get a sophomore throwing six quality innings, you like your chances.”