Geneva has plenty to Bragg about after outlasting Batavia
It took awhile — 10 innings and a little over three hours of baseball — before Geneva cleanup hitter Anthony Bragg finally delivered a knockout blow Batavia couldn’t bounce back from.
The Bulldogs had been coming from behind all day against Geneva on Monday in the opening round of the Phil Lawler Summer State Tournament. The Vikings jumped to leads of 4-0, 5-2, 8-5 and 9-8 ... and each time the host Bulldogs responded by tying the game.
But after Mitch Endriukaitis ripped a two-out triple in the top of the 10th inning and Jake Weede was hit by a pitch, Bragg stepped to the plate and drilled a line drive over the head of Batavia center fielder Rob Bowman for a 2-run double. Max Novak retired Batavia in order in the bottom of the 10th in his fourth inning of relief, giving No. 13 seed Geneva an 11-9 win and a date Tuesday with No. 5 St. Charles East — a 5-3 winner over Marmion in the regional semifinals.
“Coach (Matt) Hahn would always come in the dugout and tell us we need to answer their answering,” said Bragg. “We did a good job of that today.”
Geneva (12-9-3) got to Batavia starter Luke Horton, the first of five Bulldog pitchers, for 4 runs in the third inning. Brock Chenier, Endriukaitis and Weede hit 3 straight doubles, and catcher Bryce Rentschler also doubled in a run.
That was just the start of a huge day from Geneva’s 1-2-3 hitters: Chenier, Endriukaitis and Weede combined to go 9-for-14 with 5 doubles, 2 triples (both by Endriukaitis), 8 runs scored and 5 RBI. The Vikings pounded the ball all game, finishing with 10 extra-base hits; Batavia had four.
“It’s tough when you don’t have all your guys, they are at football, on vacation, coming back from a tournament, whatever,” Hahn said. “It’s been tough getting any sort of camaraderie or cohesive order. We’ve been juggling orders, but I was very happy with the approach.”
The Bulldogs (16-8-1) began their comeback in the third inning when Geneva misplayed Laren Eustace’s single to center, and Eustace sped all the way around the bases to join Billy Zwick scoring on the play making it a 4-2 game.
Another Chenier double helped Geneva go up 5-2 before Batavia pulled within 5-4 on the first of several key two-out hits, this one a 2-run double by Colby Green.
Batavia catcher Dean Simoncelli’s two-out double in the fifth plated Horton to make it a 5-5 game.
Simoncelli, one of the Bulldogs who earlier in the morning had been at football camp, left in the ninth due to the heat. Simoncelli finished 2-for-4 and also threw out a pair of would-be base stealers at second and third base.
Geneva went up 8-5 with 3 runs in its half of the sixth — again fueled by 3 straight hits from the top three hitters in the lineup — only to see Batavia answer with 3 runs in its half of the sixth. Micah Coffey ripped a 2-run double down the right-field line, then scored on Horton’s double. Batavia had a chance to take the lead but bunted into a double play on a suicide squeeze attempt.
Geneva regained a 9-8 lead in the ninth when Ben Chally launched a home run to left field.
Down to their last out in the ninth, Zwick kept the Bulldogs alive with a game-tying RBI single. He eventually reached third base but was stranded — Batavia left the potential game-winning run in scoring position in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings.
“We used a heck of a lot of pitching and they hit them all,” Batavia coach Matt Holm said.
Eustace led Batavia reaching base in 5 of his 6 at-bats. Zwick had 3 hits.
“Despite the number of runs scored our pitchers did OK,” Holm said. “Successful summer. I was pleased with a lot of things. It gave us a chance to see a lot of people.”
In other scores in the St. Charles East regional, No. 15 West Aurora upset No. 2 St. Charles North 17-7 after also defeating No. 16 West Chicago 10-3. At the Glenbard South regional, No. 13 seed Aurora Central defeated No. 4 Metea Valley, 10-5.
New travel program
The Kaneland Travel baseball program, which will start in the summer of 2013, has released its tryout dates and information for the 11U, 12U, and 13U travel baseball teams that will compete in the KCBL next year with a birthday cutoff day of May 1.
Beginning with the summer of 2014, the KTB will incorporate 10U and 14U for a total of five levels of travel baseball.
The tryouts are: Friday, July 27: 11u 4:30-6:30 p.m., 12u 5:30-7:30 p.m, 13u 6:30-8:30 p.m. all at Wheeler Park in Sugar Grove; Friday, Aug. 3: 11u 5:30-7:30 p.m., 12u 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Wheeler Park; Saturday, Aug. 4: 13u 9:30-11:30 a.m. at McNair Field in Elburn; Sunday, Aug. 12: 11u, 12u, 13u 1-3 p.m. at McNair Field. (This is for anyone at any of the age levels that was unable to make the other tryout dates.)
There will be a preregistration form posted on websitekanelandtravelbaseball.com that can be printed and filled out and brought to tryouts, or a parent will need to fill one out once you arrive. These tryouts are only open to those students who will attend Kaneland High School and reside in the district.
If you have any questions, contact coach Brian Aversa at Brian.Aversa@kaneland.org.
Softball
St. Charles North junior Sabrina Rabin has verbally committed to Northwestern.