Extra-special relief effort from White lifts Elgin
Clay White has developed into the kind of pitcher the Elgin baseball team can count on to finish a tough job.
That's why in the seventh inning of an eventual 3-2 Upstate Eight River victory over host Streamwood on Wednesday, the Maroons remained confident when the right-hander entered in relief of Brandon Stork after the latter yielded a leadoff double to Matt Painter.
White (1-2) escaped that jam by getting a pinch hitter to pop up a bunt and following with 2 strikeouts.
He escaped another walk-off threat in the eighth. After allowing consecutive one-out hits to Tim Crom and Jose Aguilar, the Elgin pitcher induced a groundball to first baseman Scotty Palmer. He threw home to catcher Andrew Hardt to nail a sliding Crom for the second out. White then ended the threat with a flyball to center field.
"I just kept my composure on the mound when they had second and third," said White, who allowed 3 hits, no walks and struck out five in 3 innings. "All I had to do was stay focused and work on the batter. Tough situation."
It was precisely the kind of pressurized situation White has learned to handle better during his time in the Elgin program.
"That's what I'm most proud of in his four years: he wants the ball more," Maroons coach David Foerster said. "He was more tentative early in his career but now he wants the ball and he wants to be that guy. I'm very comfortable with him on the hill."
Elgin (4-6, 1-1) got its pitcher the run he needed in the ninth when Hardt led off with a double against Sabres reliever Junior Alvarez and eventually scored from third base on a two-out error by third baseman Zach Campbell, who had moved to the position after pitching 6 innings and allowing 2 earned runs on 7 hits.
White's final escape came in the top of the ninth came with a big assist from his batterymate. He struck out the first two Sabres before Keegan Cordone reached on an error and stole second.
When White's next pitch bounced in front of Hardt, the catcher quickly found the ball and fired it to third baseman Michael Gonzalez, who tagged a sliding Cordone to end the game.
Streamwood (2-5, 1-1) left nine men on base, including runners in scoring position in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
"That's been the story of our season," Streamwood coach Ryan Lasota said. "We talk about it all the time: runners in scoring with less than two outs we've got to find a way. It's just one of those things where we just didn't punch them across. We've been in every game we've played. We've got to have a better approach at the plate when we have runners in scoring position and cash in on those opportunities."
Stork pitched 6 strong innings for the Maroons. Streamwood's only runs came in the fifth inning, courtesy of a balk and an errant throw by the shortstop. Stork allowed 2 runs (1 earned) on 6 hits without a walk. He struck out 8.
Stork also drove in runs with a first-inning single and a third-inning sacrifice fly. He and the Maroons then had to wait six innings to score again, despite having runners at first and third with no outs in the eighth inning against Alvarez (0-1), who escaped via 2 groundouts and a flyball. Elgin stranded 11.
"We were bound to get one in with how may we left out there." Stork said.