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South Elgin's big bats put the broom to Bartlett

There's stepping up against your rival and then there's what South Elgin's experienced hitters did to Bartlett pitching for the last three days.

The Storm capped a 3-game sweep of the host Hawks on Thursday with an 11-4 victory in which they pounded out 12 more hits. For the Upstate Eight Valley series, South Elgin (10-2, 7-2) collected 36 hits compared to 19 for Bartlett (9-7, 6-3).

The Storm entered the series averaging 6.1 runs per game, but they averaged 11.7 runs per game against Bartlett, which opened the UEC Valley season 6-0 after sweeping West and East Aurora.

"Our offense was definitely on this series," said South Elgin No. 3 hitter Nick Menken, who went 3-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI on Thursday to finish the series 6-for-12 with 5 RBI. "We're having better approaches at the plate. Guys are hitting the ball, squaring it up."

Leading the way throughout the series were the six hitters who return to the order from the South Elgin team that finished third in Class 4A in 2014: Menken, Dane Toppel, Kyle Hays, Antonio Danesi, Danny Asa and Jared Kramer. On Thursday, those six combined to go 10-for-21 with 8 RBI and 9 runs scored. For the series, they hit .500 (27-for-54) with 20 RBI and 24 runs scored. The Storm batted .414 as a team (36-for-87).

"We come in with a good approach every game," said Toppel, who finished the series with 7 hits in 9 at-bats and 4 RBI. "With crosstown you never know what's going to happen. We just came out and did our job, put the runs on the board."

The Hawks know where they have to improve after taking three days of punishment from one of the area's top teams.

"It definitely has to be an eye-opener," Bartlett coach Chris Pemberton said. "We have to see that to perform and compete day in, day out we have to get better. We have to be more efficient. It starts on the mound. I think we threw 400-some pitches in the 3 games and that's quite a few. So we have to get more efficient and not throw balls in the dirt. We threw 7 wild pitches (Thursday).

"And it carries over to the field defensively, the good approach with the bat, on the bases. We have to improve in all aspects as we move forward to compete in the conference."

The beneficiary of South Elgin's 11-run performance was 6-foot-10 junior left-hander Tyler Hankins, who won his first varsity start despite a shaky opening. Against the first 6 Hawks he faced, he allowed 4 earned runs on 3 hits, 2 walks and a sacrifice fly.

Hankins (1-0) settled down after inducing a line-drive double play to end the first inning. He retired seven straight batters and limited Bartlett to a hit and a walk over the next 4 innings. He struck out three in 5 innings of work.

"I was getting in some bad habits, like I was dipping my arm and stuff," Hankins said of his first-inning trouble. "My teammates were behind me. My coach told me to go over the top. I stuck with it and settled down a little bit and I was able to get the job done the rest of the game."

South Elgin took a 2-0 lead in its first at-bat against Bartlett senior Jordan Flint, but the Hawks answered with their 4-spot against Hankins. Flint did the most damage to his pitching counterpart in the bottom of the first inning by sending a Hankins pitch over the right-field wall for a 2-run home run and a 4-2 Bartlett lead.

However, the Storm answered with 4 runs in the second inning to take the lead and 4 more in the third to pull away. Menken delivered RBI singles to propel each rally, both of which were ignited by hits from catcher Mitch Butvilas (2-for-3, double, 2 runs).

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