Dundee-Crown survives Rockford Jefferson
Dundee-Crown’s Mike Hazelhurst was 0-for-2 with 2 strikeouts going into his seventh-inning plate appearance against Rockford Jefferson pitcher Jalen Wimberly Monday. Wimberly was throwing a 6-hitter and D-C had stranded 9 baserunners to that point.
And knowing that D-C’s lack of run production had been a season-long story, you got the idea that either the Chargers had to make a bold move with speedy Garrett Ryan at second and one out.
D-C went with the bold move and it paid off.
After Hazelhurst lined a pitch over third to left field, a bobble by the Jefferson left fielder allowed Chargers’ coach Tommy Parisi to boldly wave Ryan home. The aggressive baserunning proved beneficial as the throw was cutoff by Wimberly near the mound and Ryan slid into home as the winning run in walk-off fashion for the 2-1 win in the play-in game of the Class 4A Huntley regional.
The fourth-seeded Chargers (9-20-1) will play No. 1 seed Crystal Lake South Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Huntley.
“I had no intention of sending him on a line drive,” Parisi admitted. “(Ryan) slowed up. Originally I had the stop sign up. But I kept my eyes on the left fielder and once I saw that ball drop, I sent him. Garrett has pretty good acceleration as far as speed goes. It’s tough for any high school player to fumble the ball, pick it up and throw a strike, to make that play and have all work out successfully. We’ve had guys in scoring position all game, and haven’t been able to execute that little things to get him in. Here’s our opportunity, take it right now, and we went for it.“
And Ryan did, too.
“I was just picking up coach Parisi,” he said. “I knew it went to the left fielder and I didn’t know if he bobbled it or not. I saw coach waiving his arms and I just ran as fast as I could. I was very lucky. Things had to go our way, somehow.”
Things also went Erik Brewer’s way. He gave up no earned runs on 1 walk, 4 hits and 7 strikeouts. Brewer (3-5) also benefited from his defense and catcher Dylan Kissack, who cut down two runners on rundowns in back-to-back innings.
“Dylan played a great game behind the plate, he got me out of some jams,” Brewer said. “It gives you a lot of support knowing you can go at hitters and not try to strike everyone out, that your defense can make plays behind you so in the end it can work out for your team.”
Kissack tagged a runner out at the plate in the sixth when Jefferson failed on a squeeze. With runners on first and third in the seventh, Kissack caught Jefferson runner Andrew Wimbley trying to steal home.
Jefferson scored a run in the top of the third on an obstruction at third base as J-Hawks runner Josh Peterson tried scoring on a fielder’s choice. D-C answered in the bottom half with a based-loaded walk from Hazelhurst.
Zach Girard was 3-for-4 with 3 singles for D-C.