Wheeling teams up for crossover win; Oakton falls short

Josh Matthys provided the power.

Ricky Schwind delivered the pitching.

And Anthony Spiezia made the game-saving defensive play for Wheeling (8-22) in its 7-6 Mid-Suburban League crossover baseball victory at Schaumburg (9-18) on Friday.

Spiezia made a diving catch in right field with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning. That preserved the victory for Schwind (2-2), who pitched 4 innings.

Matthys, who leads the Wildcats in hitting at .440 but came in with only 1 homer, hit a pair and drove in 3 runs.

Correction: Trent Rehusch homered for Hoffman Estates in a 7-6 loss Wednesday to Schaumburg. It was Rehusch's first high school homer. The Daily Herald was provided with incorrect information.

Community collegeRain had already forced Oakton College to wait a day to play its NJCAA Division I Region IV final four tournament opener in Kankakee.On Friday, the Raiders had to endure three rain delays and needed nine hours to finish their game with Madison Tech from Wisconsin.The waiting didn't hurt their bats at all as they had 20 hits but it wasn't enough as it lost 18-12 in the double-elimination tourney."Offensively we played really well," said Oakton coach Bill Fratto. "We should have won but we just didn't pitch well."Oakton (42-18) will play an elimination game at 9 a.m. today against Elgin, which lost 7-1 to Kankakee on Thursday.Oakton could never get the lead Friday despite a 6-for-6 day by sophomore Luis Diaz. Alex DeLaRosa (Loyola) went 3-for-3 with an RBI, Tim Scanlan (Prospect) was 2-for-5 with 5 RBI an had a double and a sacrifice fly and Shane Uhle (Prospect) went 1-for-5).Madison broke it open with a 7-run ninth for an 18-7 lead. Oakton left 14 runners on base.