Schaumburg holds off Zilinsky, Bartlett

The Bartlett baseball team made the mistake of spotting visiting Schaumburg 5 early runs in its home opener Tuesday afternoon.

It's hard to overcome such a deficit, but Myles Zilinsky did his best. The senior center fielder blasted a pair of home runs that cut the Saxons' lead to 6-5 at the end of 5 innings.

Zilinsky had one more chance to get it all back in the bottom of the seventh inning, but grounded out to first base. Two batters later, it was over, with Schaumburg taking the 7-5 nonconference victory, dropping the Hawks to 1-1.

But the buzz afterward was all about Zilinsky's sudden power surge, and why not? It was his first 2 home runs of the season after hitting none a year ago.

Count Schaumburg coach Cal Seely as one of the many who held his breath as Zilinsky stepped to the plate in the seventh.

"Absolutely, a kid with that much power," said Seely, whose team improved to 3-0-1. "But we just took a look at our charts, we had a game plan going in, moved our defense in a position we liked, and it worked out."

The at-bat wasn't exactly a duel between Zilinsky and Saxons' relief pitcher Christian Poulsen. Poulsen worked the count to 1-1 before inducing Zilinsky to ground to first baseman Jack Bellinger, who bobbled the ball, but then tossed it to Poulsen covering the bag.

It was, however, the kind of at-bat that Zilinsky wished he could get a do-over.

"First pitch was a ball, and then a fastball away, and then he came back with a pitch similar to the one I hit out, but I rolled over, and …" he said, voice trailing. "I didn't give my team an opportunity."

Zilinsky more than made up for that in his two previous plate appearances. After striking out in the first inning, he hit a 3-1 pitch over the right-center field fence, plating both himself and junior Cameron Mays, who had previously singled, moved to second on a balk and then to third on a wild pitch.

Zilinsky was just getting started. In the fifth, after Mays hit a ground-rule double, he took one strike, then smashed the next pitch over the right field fence.

That made the score 6-5 and suddenly it looked as if the Hawks were going to come all the way back.

But it wasn't to be. Schaumburg got an insurance run in the top of the sixth, as Alex Kiszkowski singled to left, moved to second on a wild pitch, then to third on another, before scoring on a sacrifice fly by DH Chris Broccolino.

Poulsen, who came on in the fifth in relief of starter Brendan Beck, gave up nothing but a single to Bartlett's Austin Hilvert in the final two frames, including Zilinsky's crucial groundout.

"We wanted to throw away, because the pitches we were giving him were inside, and that's when he took it out," Poulsen said. "I threw him a curveball on the second home run, and I hung it, and we just want to throw a fastball and stay away from him, and it worked."

"He kind of had some struggles last year, but he's come in this year and he's been a solid worker for us, and has a good work ethic, and we're looking forward to big things from him this year," Bartlett coach Chris Pemberton said of Zilinsky. "He's a guy we're going to rely upon this year. He's not going to carry the load, but he's been a quality hitter and he's definitely one of our guys who's going to hit the ball for us all season long."

Although it got tight late in the game, Seely was more than pleased with his early offense, which plated 2 runs in the first inning and 3 in the second. The latter frame was highlighted by a 2-run double by Broccolino that drove in Parker Nolan and Tommy Larsen.

He was also pleased with Poulsen's relief efforts.

"He's just a tough kid," Seely said. "He gave up the big home run, but he got over it quick and once he gets in a rhythm, he's hard to stop. He likes to work quick, and once we get that rhythm set, he's in good shape."

Poulsen was no slouch at the plate either, going 3-for-3 with 3 singles and 2 runs scored. Kiszkowski added a 3-for-4 day with 3 singles, while Broccolino had a single and a double and 3 RBI.