Pitching carries Elgin to sweep
In a crosstown rivalry renewed on Saturday, host Elgin swept a doubleheader from St. Edward, winning 12-2 in six innings in Game 1 and taking home a 7-3 win in Game 2.
In Game 1, even though Elgin pitcher Ryan Sitter had a 3-run cushion after 3 innings with 2 of them scoreless, the sophomore struggled with his release point even with 4 strikeouts. He looked at the opportunity given to him in the top of the fourth when his teammates were at bat to quickly fix whatever was wrong with it before St. Edward could get to him again.
“I went out and worked on it a little bit by playing some catch,” Sitter said. “I came back out and it was feeling good.”
Feeling good and stretched-out, Sitter felt more focused. He continued on with his dominance performance — a 5 hit, 8 strikeout win in 6 innings of work to get the win, which was shortened in part to a 6-run sixth as the 10-run rule concluded matters.
“I thought I pitched pretty well, it’s better than my last start,” said Sitter, who gave up just 2 earned runs. “I focused a lot more, I was amped up last time, I was bouncing around, not focused.”
Sitter (1-0) struck out 4 of the first 8 Green Wave hitters he saw before St. Edward nearly cut the Maroons’ lead in half.
St. Edward (5-7) scored 2 runs in the third on an double to center from Tighe Koehring (2-for-3, 2 RBI) and momentum looked to be swaying toward the Green Wave, forcing Sitter to make some adjustments.
“He got a little wild in that inning,” Maroons coach David Foerster said. “That’s where they hurt him but he threw strikes and let our defense do the work. If he’s throwing strikes and our defense is making plays, it’s a lot easier to pitch.”
Sitter came back in the fourth with a couple of flyouts and a strikeout and 2 flyouts in the fifth. His teammates picked up the slack early on by capitalizing on a few Green Wave errors in the previous innings, giving him more than enough if he did make mistakes.
A walk, a hit batter and an error allowed Elgin (3-2) to score 3 runs in the first and 2 errors to begin the second inning led to 2 more runs. Devin Simon’s RBI single in the first made it 3-0 and then after an error scored the fourth run for Elgin, a wild pitch after a strikeout got the fifth run in. Derek Strohmaier (2-for-3) led off the sixth with a single and Chris Edwards’ double to center drove in the sixth run of the inning to end it.
Elgin’s 1-5 hitters proved to be lethal as leadoff hitter Edwards reached 3 times and Strohmaier in all 4 of his at-bats. Gage Teschner was 2-for-3 as well.
“We competed for the first 5 innings out there, and with 4 or 5 errors, 4 walks, you can’t ask for much when your competing against a 4A school like that with that many mistakes on the field,” Green Wave coach Tim Dovichi said.
Jake Lefrenz (2-1) was charged with the loss though with just 2 earned runs as he walked 4 and struck out 4 before leaving after the fifth.
“(Lefrenz) is a finesse pitcher. When you can’t throw the stuff you want, they’re going to key in on it and that’s what happens,” Dovichi said.
In Game 2, the Maroons’ bats stayed hot. Elgin’s habit of scoring in the first continued with 2 again, as it scored 5 times in the first inning combined. They Maroons added 4 in the fifth thanks to an RBI double by Strohmaier and a Ben Nelson 2-run single that broke it wide open.
Strohmaier finished 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, Jake Bartelt went 2-for-2 with a double and Andrew Higdon was 2-for-2 with a double.
Kiko Mari (1-0) pitched 6 innings, giving up 3 earned runs on 7 hits, a walk and 5 strikeouts. Elgin stacked together two dominant pitching performances as the team gave up 12 hits and 5 runs for the day.
“Both pitched fantastic,” Foerster said. “Two well-pitched games. For us we had no errors, timely hits. Just a solid day.”