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Plano Concludes Mastery Of Wilmington
Reapers Sake Off Three Game Slide To Gain Three Sport Sweep Of Wildcats

By Bill Lidinsky

For the past three years the Wilmington Wildcats have literally owned both the Interstate Eight Conference high school football and baseball seasons. Despite being the I-8 doormats in basketball, the Wildcats have been stellar on the gridiron and on the diamond since 2003. Wilmington captured an IHSA Class A 2nd place trophy during the 03 campaign in football and two state championships in baseball during the 03 and 05 seasons along with a third place finish in 2004. So to say the Wildcats have been dominant would be quite an understatement.

But the winds of change and the birth of Reaper Nation in 2005-06 have signaled a changing of the guard in the IEC.

On Monday evening at Wilmington the Plano High School varsity baseball team concluded what ended up being a mission started by the Reapers way back in the 05 football season with a 27-24 overtime victory on the Wildcats home field.

This time, eight months later Plano finished off a six game win streak that produced two victories in each of the three major sports. And once again it came on Wilmington’s home turf with a 15-8 win on the baseball diamond in a game that would be concluded from a March 31 contest which was suspended by darkness with the Reapers leading 12-4.

The victory also concluded Plano’s regular season baseball schedule and sent them into the IHSA Class A playoffs on a high note after a mini three game losing streak.

“It’s turned into a big rivalry against Wilmington. We’ve really knocked them on their chin this year in all three sports for the first time in a long time,” said Plano head baseball coach Jim Schmidt. “They’ve been the king of the block in both football and baseball for the last three seasons and for us to beat them twice in each sport is quite a lift for us.”

Reaper Nation’s latest mastery of Wilmington took a month and a half to accomplish. After a 2-0 win at home on March 30 in which senior Nick Preston pitched a gem, Plano continued their dominance leading by eight runs on the road before the game was called due to darkness. Flash forward to Monday and once again Preston was on the hill needing just nine outs to complete the year long sweep over the Wildcats.

In the top of the fifth, the Reapers went down 1-2-3. Then in the bottom of the frame Preston struck out the side to give Plano a shot of confidence with two innings to play.

Plano notched a single run in the top of the sixth on junior Josh O’Hara’s RBI single that scored senior Will Brown who had also reached on a base hit to make the score 13-4.

But after Preston retired the first two batters in the bottom of the sixth, Wilmington took advantage of some Reaper fielding miscues to score four runs to cut the deficit to 13-8.

However, Plano answered with two more runs in the top of the seventh on an RBI single by senior Shawn Gwilt and an RBI double by Brown to give the Reapers a seven run lead they’d never relinquish.

Preston faced five Wilmington batters in the bottom of the seventh and secured the victory that went to junior Eric Nelson (4-4) who was the original starter on March 31. All four of the Wildcat runs were unearned on Monday which saw Preston reclaim his dominance on the mound and a leader for Plano on the hill.
“Wilmington has won the state title two of the past three years and they were playing for a conference title with this game against us. They made us come all the way back down here to play out a game we had really won so we weren’t about to give it up after leading by eight runs,” Preston said. “I finally feel healthy now and I was glad to be able to step up in a big game. I knew I was supposed to be a key this year but I haven’t performed well since I beat Wilmington back in March. I probably won’t get any conference awards but that’s fine with me because I’m healthy again and I’m ready to go now entering the regional playoffs. Hopefully I can lead us to a regional championship.”

Earlier on Monday Plano lost to Reed-Custer 13-3 in five innings in a game that was played at Wilmington due to the adverse weather conditions that rendered the Comets home field unplayable. It was the Reapers third straight defeat after two straight one run losses in the Johnny Mac Tournament at Ottawa Marquette on Saturday May 13.

In game one on Saturday, Plano dropped a 7-6 decision to the host Crusaders before giving up five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning of game two to fall 5-4 to Sterling-Newman Catholic in what resulted in a very disappointing weekend for the Reapers.

“We blew the game versus Marquette in the last inning when we should’ve beaten them. Then against Sterling Newman we had a 4-0 lead and wasted a great pitching performance by Ben Heller,” Schmidt said. “I thought our relievers could close out the game but we didn’t and Ben got a no decision in a game he should have won. But it feels good to come back after a big loss to Reed-Custer and finish our regular season sweeping Wilmington while going into regionals on a high note.”

No rest for the weary as Plano played host to the IHSA regional on Tuesday against Earlville. With a win the Reapers will battle the top seeded Comets again on Wednesday with a shot at a regional championship matchup against the winner of Thursday’s game between Indian Creek and Somonauk. The title game is set for Saturday at 11:00 a.m.

“I told the kids after tonight’s win against Wilmington that our main goal is still within sight. It’s going to be tough to beat Earlville and Reed-Custer but it can be done,” Schmidt said. “I hope it comes down to Plano versus Somonauk in the regional championship. It would be great for our communities to be involved in a regional title game. But we’ve got to get Earlville first then Reed-Custer so we’ve got a lot of work to do. Earlville beat us 1-0 earlier in the year so nothings a given, but I definitely believe we can be regional champions with the talent we have on this team.”

A big Plano highlight came in the loss to Reed-Custer. Junior Brook Bott recorded an RBI single and a two-run homer as he drove in all three of the Reaper runs to become the school’s career leader in RBIs with 109 eclipsing the team’s previous mark of 107 set by Raul Torres back in 1998. Bott also broke the single season RBI total as he reached 49 and moved past the mark of 46 set by Brian Gregory in 2001.

Bott has started every game since his freshman year in 2003.
Plano concluded their regular season with an overall mark of 15-20 and 5-9 in the I-8. Despite the losing record, the Reapers proved they can play with any team should their will and desire allow them the luxury.

“We can beat anybody and we can lose to anybody. That’s how it’s been this year. We lost some games we had no business losing but we’ve also won a lot of games against big time opponents like Wilmington,” Schmidt said. “But we can’t take Earlville lightly either. After that it’s strength against strength versus the Comets and I believe playing on our home field for the regional can bring us a lot of success. My hope is to bring “Reaper Nation” to it’s feet and go get a regional championship plaque.”

Final I-8 Standings

Reed-Custer 10-4
Seneca       9-5
Coal City    9-5
Wilmington   9-5
Sandwich     7-7
Lisle        6-8
Plano        5-9
Dwight       1-13

From Ottawa Daily Times

Reed Custer 13, Plano 3

At Wilmington, Brook Bott once again etched his name in the Plano record books with a three run home run in the fifth, giving him 49 RBI on the season and 109 RBI for his career during a 13-3 victory over Reed Custer. Shawn Gwilt took the loss for Plano, while Matt Priesman and Bott combind for five hits on the day.

At Wilmington

Plano 3, Reed-Custer 13

PLANO (3) - Priesman cf 3-1-2-0, Day rf 2-1-1-0, Bott ss 3-1-3-3, Gwilt p 1-0-0-0, Preston 3b 2-0-0-0, Brown dh 3-0-1-0, O'Hara c 3-0-0-0, Wright 2b 1-0-0-0, Jensen lf 2-0-0-0, Heller 0-0-0-0 Totals 20-3-7-3.

REED-CUSTER (13) - Howard ss 1-1-0-1, Thomas 2b 4-2-1-0, Brennen c 2-2-1-3, Kimbro 1b 3-2-2-2, Brown p 3-0-0-1, Speed 3b 3-2-1-2, Giertych dh 3-1-2-0, Kuchar rf 3-1-1-0, Schodrof lf 3-1-2-1 Totals 25-13-10-10. Reed-Custer (13) 005 260 0 -- 13

Plano (3)        100 020 0 -- 3 

E - Plano Alex Jensen, Reed Custer Tyler Speed. LOB - Plano 4, Reed Custer 4 . 2B - Matt Priesman (P), Tom Kimbro (RC). HR -Brook Bott (P), Webster Brennen (RC), Tyler Speed (RC). SB -Brook Bott (P), Steve Howard (RC). HBP - Steve Howard.

Plano 15, Wilmington 8

At Wilmington, the Reapers closed out their regular season with the completion of an interupted game against Wilmington from March 31, finishing with a 15-20 record.

Eric Nelson earned the victory, giving up two earned runs over three innings. Will Brown had a huge day at the plate, going 5-for-5 with three RBI in the win.

Plano is back in action on today, playing host to Earlville in the opening round of the Regional tournament.

Plano 15, Wilmington 8

WILMINGTON (8) -- Gurnitz lf 5-1-0-0, Tofoya cf 3-1-2-2, Roark ss 4-1-1-1, Dziuban c 4-1-3-1, Mitchel 1b 3-1-0-0, Spell p 3-1-1-0, Wright p 0-1-0-0, Cragg 2b 4-0-2-1, Vercilli 3b 3-0-0-1, Stickel rf 2-1-0-0. Totals 31-8-9-6.

PLANO (15) -- Priesman cf 5-1-2-0, Jensen 5-2-2-1, Bott ss 4-2-2-2, Gwilt 1b/ss 4-2-2-3, Preston 3b/p 4-1-0-0, Brown dh 5-4-5-3, O'Hara c 4-1-2-2, Wright 2b 2-1-1-1, Day rf/lf 4-1-2-1, Heller 1b 0-0-0-0, Klingberg p 0-0-0-0, Fergusen 2b 1-0-0-0, LeMaster ph 1-0-0-0, Gould rf 0-0-0-0, Totals 39-15-18-14.

Wilmington    010 304 0 --  8

Plano (15-20) 023 701 2 -- 15

West Chicago 5, West Aurora 1 — The Blackhawks managed only four hits in dropping to 5-20 overall on the season and 2-13 in the DuPage Valley Conference.

Reed-Custer 13, Plano 3 — Brook Bott had a three-run homer to account for all of Plano's runs, and with that set a school record for RBIs in a season (49) and a career (109). Matt Priesman added two hits for Plano. The Reapers also picked up a win over Wilmington, 15-8, in the continuation of a game suspended by darkness on March 31.

Oswego 11, Oswego East 4 — Kyle Ayers struck out nine to even his record at 4-4, while also knocking out two hits and driving in a run. Jeff Amport and A.J. Quinones also had two RBIs apiece.

Aurora Central 10, St. Edward 0 — Riley Totten went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Nate Hemmerich 2-for-3 with a double and RBI. Tyler Weber had a double and RBI for ACC (16-14, 4-9 in Suburban Catholic Conference).

Geneva 2, Sycamore 1 — Brad Allen held Sycamore to just four hits and picked up the win after the Vikings scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh