Bottom line: Jacobs tops Barrington
It was bottoms up for Jacobs on Wednesday.
Stevie Krueger, Nate Meland and Casey Dennison, hitting in the 6 through 8 spots in the Golden Eagles' batting order, reached base in 7 of 9 plate appearances, accounting for 3 of Jacobs' runs in its 7-3 victory over host Barrington.
Although a nonconference game, it had huge implications for the seeding in the Jacobs regional next month. Both Barrington and Jacobs are in that talent-laden regional along with Cary-Grove, Dundee-Crown and Huntley.
"We have been swinging the bats well the past few games," said Jacobs coach Jamie Murray, whose team banged out 14 hits on Wednesday. "This was a good win for us. That is an excellent team over there. They are in our regional."
Barrington (7-5), which beat Huntley last week and Dundee-Crown on Tuesday and will meet Cary-Grove in Thursday, took the lead in the second. But the Broncos squandered an opportunity to get more runs and left 10 men on base.
"That was the story of the game for us," Barrington coach Pat Wire said. "The first 3 innings were like a nice heavyweight fight. Right now they were a better team than we are and we have our work cut out for ourselves."
Jake Petersen drove a hard single to left with the bases loaded and two outs in the second. His hit scored Luke Johnson, but the Broncos runner took too big a turn at third and was caught trying to come back to the base to end the threat.
Jacobs (12-3) bunted its way to a 3-1 lead in the third.
The Golden Eagles had bunt singles from Meland and Mike Addante that led to 1 run and a sacrifice fly by Matt Koziak and a RBI single from Ryan Sargent.
"It feels real good," said Meland, who had 3 hits. "I had been slacking so far this year and not seeing the ball as well as I should have. Today I just say back and relaxed a little bit."
Barrington tied it in its half of the third with two outs an no one on. Jimmy Day took a page from Jacobs and reached on a bunt single. From there, the Broncos parlayed 2 hit batters and 2 walks into 2 runs. But the Broncos left the bases loaded to end inning.
It was Jacobs' turn to bemoan a missed opportunity in the fourth.
Dennison doubled home Krueger, who had walked. The Golden Eagles then loaded the bases with one out. But after a strikeout, Barrington center fielder Mitch Pfeiffer ran down Sargent's long shot to center to end the inning.
"We were just really focused on our approaches," said Dennison, who finished with 2 hits and an RBI. "What we really wanted to do was hit the ball hard. If we hit it hard, the outcome is usually pretty good."
Krueger, who set the table in two of the innings, reaching on a walk and hit batter, likes the way his team is going right now.
"We are working hard this year," Krueger said. "We struggled early, but we are coming on now."
The Golden Eagles added some insurance runs in the sixth and seventh.
Jeff Sidor, who was batting in the No. 6 spot, had RBI singles in each of the last 2 innings while Owen Oreskovich, who also had 2 hits, drove in the other run.
Anthony DeLaurentis had 2 hits for Barrington.