Batavia ousts St. Charles East
Batavia baseball coach Matt Holm laughed that the Bulldogs practice the play all the time, that he has a team full of hockey fans.
Batavia pitcher Steven Patterson called it a kick save.
All joking aside, Patterson's foot was in just the right place with the Bulldogs clinging to a 1-run lead in the seventh inning Tuesday of the 2011 IHSBCA Phil Lawler Summer Classic at Batavia.
Patterson's left foot deflected a rocket shot headed up the middle. Instead of a single to start the seventh inning, the ball deflected off Patterson's foot straight to Batavia first baseman Micah Coffey, who stepped on the bag for the first out.
Patterson retired the next two hitters for Batavia's first 1-2-3 inning of the game, capping a rally from 4-1 down for a 7-6 victory and a spot in Wednesday's regional semifinals at 1 p.m. at St. Charles East.
"Little foot save hockey style," smiled Patterson, who threw the final 4 innings in relief of Nick Pappas as he transitions from a short inning role at the back of the bullpen to a starter next season.
"Huge win. Especially in (the) Upstate Eight (Conference) it's always good to send a message going into next year."
It looked early like No. 6 seed St. Charles East (16-8) would send that message. The Saints scored 3 runs in the first inning, a rally started by Joe Hoscheit's RBI double and capped by Jack DelloStritto's 2-run single.
Batavia (21-7) got a run back in the first on Danny Ritchason's 2-out opposite field single to right.
The Saints grabbed a 4-1 lead in the second. Hoscheit again supplied the key hit with a leadoff double.
The Bulldogs took advantage of a couple errors to score 2 unearned runs during their 3-run second inning that tied the game 4-4.
Grounders from Rob Bowman and Sam Burnoski scored runs, as did a single by leadoff hitter Laren Eustace.
Batavia took the lead for good in the fourth with 2 runs against Saints starter Johnny Hondlik. Austin Higgins drew a walk and Billy Zwick reached on a bunt when the Saints failed to throw out the lead runner Higgins at second.
After a balk put runners at second and third, Bowman drove a ball past the drawn-in infield to score 2 runs for a 6-4 lead.
"We were just going up looking for strikes and he (Hondlik) was giving us good pitches to hit," Bowman said. "There was a lot of moving guys over and getting them in."
Swick singled in Batavia's final run in the fifth to make it 7-4. That proved to be a difference-making insurance run when the Saints' Jordan Hayes ripped a 2-run triple in the sixth inning. Patterson retired the Saints' No. 3 and No. 4 hitters on fly balls to strand Hayes at third.
Both teams finished with 10 hits. St. Charles East's came from 5 players with 2 hits each: Hoscheit, Hayes, Nicholas Erickson, DelloStritto and Troy Dykins.
Ritchason, Luke Horton and Zwick all had 2 hits for Batavia.
The Bulldogs turned double plays to end the fourth and fifth innings. In the fifth, right fielder Eustace caught a fly ball, hit Coffey at first base with a relay, and Coffey fired to catcher Steve Durham who blocked the plate and got the tag down for an inning-ending 9-3-2 double play.
"As little as he (Eustace) is he has a rocket for an arm," Holm said. "People are going to misjudge him."
The loss turned out to be the final game for Saints coach Dave Haskins. In his two years with the Saints he compiled a 54-21 record.
"We made way too many mistakes," Haskins said. "Defensively more than usual. Tip the cap to them, they are a good baseball team and I hope they represent our conference well."