St. Charles East lacks execution vs. Prairie Ridge
St. Charles East’s baseball team finished with one fielding error during Thursday’s nonconference game against Prairie Ridge.
But the late-inning miscue proved costly as the Wolves (4-0) capitalized with a 6-run seventh — with all of the runs coming across after 2 outs — during their 7-3 victory over the Saints (1-2) in St. Charles.
“If we execute better, we’re going into the bottom of the seventh down 1-0,” said Saints coach Len Asquini. “We just kind of lost it there.”
“We just talked to the kids about execution,” added Asquini. “We had a very poorly executed game. We made some bad pitches there (in the seventh). And one inning we came to the plate and had a good approach. That’s not good enough.”
Left-handed hitting senior first baseman Matt Furst capped a perfect day at the plate (3-for-3, walk, 2 RBI) with his 2-run double in the top of the seventh to make it 3-0.
“He had some great at-bats,” Prairie Ridge coach Glen Pecoraro said of Furst. “His last at-bat was a hit-and-run because I just wanted to make something happen.”
Missouri-bound Jordan Getzelman followed with an RBI triple, Austin Covers had a run-scoring single, and Dustin Thelander delivered a 2-run single to cap the 6-run seventh.
“We scored four runs after two outs,” said Pecoraro. “It’s a special thing when you can do that.”
Designated hitter Steven Ladd’s 2-out RBI single in the sixth off Saints reliever Troy Dykhuis (0-1) sent Furst across with the game’s first run after the Wolves’ No. 2 hitter legged out an infield hit to open the frame.
The inning also included a rare sacrifice bunt from Getzelman.
“Getzelman is one of the best players in the state of Illinois,” said Pecoraro. “He’s not going as well as he’s going to be so I have no hesitation bunting with him. And with his speed, he’s got a chance to beat out any bunt. He’s a selfless kid.”
St. Charles East doubled its hit total during a 3-run bottom half of the seventh, which included back-to-back singles from Mike Candre and pinch-hitter Ben Smith before an RBI single by Isaac Nimick (2-for-4) and Nick Erickson’s 2-run single.
But the Saints could only muster 4 hits through the first 6 frames against Penn-bound southpaw starter Mike Reitcheck and senior sidearm hurler Caleb Senyshyn (1-0).
“We need to play with more of a sense of urgency,” said Asquini. “We need to do that in the first, second, and third innings — not just in one inning.”
On a positive note, senior Joe Hoscheit worked 5 scoreless innings in his mound debut for the Saints, giving up 2 hits with 4 walks and 6 strikeouts.
“Joe did a wonderful job on the mound and got out of some situations,” said Asquini. “That was great to see.”
In a late schedule addition, St. Charles East will play host to Sandburg Saturday.