Bartlett finally gets to South Elgin, Palmer

For four innings, Bartlett couldn’t do anything against South Elgin starter David Palmer, who held the visiting Hawks to a pair of infield singles.

In the fifth, the Hawks finally solved Palmer. They loaded the bases with no outs and wound up scoring 3 times in the inning. Bartlett starter Doug Van Dyke made it hold up for a 4-2 Upstate Eight Valley victory Thursday.

Ryan Karrick’s two-out, 2-run single was the big hit for Bartlett (12-2, 11-2), which added an insurance run in the sixth.

Palmer and recently called up sophomore Kyle Hayes drove in the runs for South Elgin.

With the Hawks trailing 1-0 in the fifth, Matt Vitulli led off by beating out a grounder to third. Collin Nowak followed with a grounder through the hole. Jake Barrutia laid down a bunt. The throw pulled first baseman Joe Crivolio off the bag and everyone was safe. Justin Blanchett followed with a line drive to left field to tie the game.

Palmer struck out the next 2 batters before Karrick lined a pitch into left-center to score the go-ahead runs.

“We took advantage of our opportunities and guys came through in the clutch,” said Bartlett coach Chris Pemberton. “That’s kind of been our story throughout the year. It hasn’t been any one guy doing that. Up and down the lineup we’ve gotten contributions. Today it was (Karrick) and (Blanchett). They came through in some big situations for us.”

South Elgin coach Jim Kating lamented his team’s missed chances.

“David pitched well enough to get a win, and we had a mental error on a bunt situation,” he said. “Bases loaded, and they came up with a bases-loaded, two-out hit that opened things up and took advantage of that situation. We both had 8 hits. They made their hits count and we were sporadic with ours.”

Leadoff man Mike Wick had 3 hits for Bartlett.

Crivolio had 3 hits for South Elgin. Riley Halter, Hayes, and Justin Markel each had a pair.

Van Dyke walked 3 and struck out 8. He escaped bases-loaded jams in the fourth and sixth innings with just 1 run scoring.

The teams combined for 16 singles but no extra-base hits.