How do you figure?

Football players from Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley shake hands after last year's game between the two schools. The rivals meet again Friday night. Danielle Gardner / STaff Photographer

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LISLE -- April is full of distractions. Eventually, the weather clears, injuries heal, suspensions end and spring break passes.

At some point, a team has to take on its identity. As to when that happens, there were two competing theories after Benet's wild 11-10 victory over Neuqua Valley on Wednesday in Lisle.

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Football players from Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley shake hands after last year's game between the two schools. The rivals meet again Friday night. Danielle Gardner / STaff Photographer

This was an unstable game. The Redwings scored nine runs in the fourth -- taking advantage of at least five Neuqua errors -- to erase a 6-1 deficit. Neuqua later tied it at 10 on Kyle Mener's two-run single up the middle in the sixth.

Adam Janssen -- the reliever who gave up the hit to Mener -- ultimately earned the win because teammate Mac Coffey blooped the go-ahead RBI single to shallow right-center field minutes later. In total Benet used four pitchers in trying to nail down the final six outs.

The Redwings are now 9-5 overall (2-0 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference). They returned almost their entire lineup from a 23-win team, including five outfielders who each started at least 10 games last year. When do you know exactly what you have?

"I don't think you ever get to that point in high school baseball. Really, I'm serious," Benet coach Jeff Bonebrake said afterward. "First of all, I think it's hard just (from) a confidence standpoint.

"Today, (I) think part of the reason it wasn't well-played is because neither team's been outside for a couple days. (You) try to do whatever you can inside but (you) just can't do the defensive stuff you want to do.

"You're never done experimenting. (You) just try to go with a hunch (and) put the guys out there who are hot, give kids opportunities."

Neuqua coach Robin Renner was asked the same question, but gave a completely different answer.

"Well, we'd like to get that done in the summer, seriously," Renner said. "It should be figured out by now. I think we have a pretty good handle on who can do what right now. Once you get into your conference season, I think you should have it figured out."

The Wildcats are a deceiving 7-5-1. They went 1-3 against high-level competition during a trip to Louisiana earlier this month. What matters is that they are 2-0-1 in the Upstate Eight Conference.

The heart of Neuqua's order will feature two talented junior outfielders. No. 3 hitter Mike Gerber deposited a pitch into the parking lot beyond the right-center field fence to give the Wildcats a 5-1 lead in the third. Cleanup hitter Joe Ippolito reached base three times, scoring twice and driving in two more runs.

But the game pivoted in the fourth, when Neuqua's defense kept giving away extra outs, allowing 14 Redwings to step to the plate.

"I think you just get one person on and people start thinking (positive)," said Benet outfielder Mike Vanchieri, who had two infield singles and scored twice that inning. "You start relaxing at the plate and that's when you string hits together and score runs."

Renner dismissed any idea that indoor practices this week played a part in the breakdown: "No, because the first three innings we were money."

Neuqua entered the game with a .936 fielding percentage that will take a significant drop after Wednesday's performance. By Renner's estimates, .950 is decent, and anything over that is a bonus.

"One thing I thought we could do is defend this year and we certainly have not," Renner said. "This is unacceptable. And we don't pitch well enough or hit well enough to be able to do that."

Benet wanted this game bad enough that it brought in Creighton signee John Boyle with a runner on second and one out in the seventh inning. On the day he was scheduled to do bullpen work on the side, Boyle struck out Jordan Williamson looking and then forced Gerber to ground out, notching the save.

"Obviously, there's gonna be kinks that you need to work out at the beginning of the season but I think we're jelling right now," Vanchieri said. "The games we've lost recently have been kind of tough-fought games, low-scoring games, so I think we're moving together pretty nice and I'm excited for what's ahead."