Elgin’s big 7th does in Barrington
When Barrington’s Macray Poidomani smashed a 3-run homer to center field in the bottom of the fourth inning into a strong wind to break a 1-1 tie, Elgin could have easily waved the white flag much like the winds did all afternoon.
Elgin’s Ryan Sitter accounted for the only Maroons’ hit up to that point and with the lack of run support all season, Elgin could have started Memorial Day weekend early.
But Elgin answered right back with 3 runs in the fifth to tie it and then came the unexpected, granddaddy seventh, where the Maroons rallied for 8 runs on 3 Bronco errors to take a 12-5 comeback win in a Class 4A Larkin regional semifinal.
No. 3 Elgin (13-22) advances to the regional championship on Saturday, where they’ll take on No. 1 South Elgin (18-12) at 10 a.m.
“We expected to win from the get-go, we always did,” Elgin coach David Foerster said. “We’ve been swinging the bats well the last week and a half or so — didn’t always show it — but we’ve been swinging the bat pretty well. We were due for a game like this. We didn’t hang our heads, we were down 4-1, we just battled, battled, battled. Our mantra has always been seven innings and we knew if we played seven innings, we’d be in good shape.”
It’s a good thing the Maroons played the seventh. That’s where Foerster’s bunch sent 12 batters to the plate.
The rally began with a one-out walk to Chris Edwards (2-for-5). After an infield hit by Derek Strohmaier (3-for-4), Gage Teschner hit a chopper to second and was safe at first, but the throw from second was wide of Justin Dragosz and Edwards scored to make it 5-4.
“Coach asked me if I wanted to bunt, just to get the guys over but he gave me the choice to hit and decided to hit,” said Teschner, who was 2-for-5 at the plate. “First pitch looked juicy, I didn’t get all of it but I made it up in the air.”
Jake Bartelt, who drove in 3 runs in the game, singled to left to drive in Teschner and Strohmaier. Sitter walked. Alex Buttell sacrificed the runners over and then Kiko Mari (RBI) reached on a fielder’s choice. On the throw home, the ball got by catcher Ryan Lidge and allowed 2 more to score. Elgin tacked on 3 more thereafter.
“Baseball’s a strange game and its about which team’s going to take advantage of mistakes and errors. Elgin did a great job of doing that,” Barrington coach Jim Hawrysko said.
But Elgin’s fifth was key.
Teschner’s double down the right-field line scored a run after Edwards and Strohmaier both got on with hits. An error on a throw to third allowed the second run to score. Bartlet’s sacrifice fly made it 4-4.
“Everyone’s feeling down (at that point), they’re not feeling up. We had to get the job done,” Teschner said.
No. 2 Barrington (17-13) looked to have the job done after Poidomani’s homer in the fourth. Pitcher Frank Waliczek was cruising to that point with one 1 hit allowed and 6 strikeouts.
It was the sixth when the wind may have came out of the Broncos’ sails when Poidomani fouled a ball off his right shoulder running out of the box with one out. He was called out at first as the play was never called dead. Elgin took it as a very valuable second out; Barrington appeared rattled since it had a runner on third.
“It definitely hit me in the box, that’s why I stopped running,” Poidomani said. “The game doesn’t come down to one play though, but I feel if I did get the opportunity to hit again I definitely would have gotten that run in from third. It’s not the umpire’s fault, we had plenty of opportunities to score besides that.”
Eric Daly, who got the win in relief of Alex Doty (3 earned, 7 hits, 2 strikeouts) would get Ryan Lidge to ground out 2 batters later.
“Did it hurt us a little bit? Yeah,” Hawrysko said. “You want that ball hit with one out, so did it take the wind out of it, yeah, maybe.”
Scott Nelson was 3-for-4 with a double for Barrington.