Team effort lifts Geneva past St. Charles East
It's not how Matt Hahn planned it, but the way the Geneva coach juggled his pitching staff Thursday at St. Charles East played a big role in the Vikings' series-deciding 5-2 victory.
After starter Bryan Callaly struggled with his command, Hahn pulled the tall righty after 3 innings. In came Mark Guerrieri, then Ben Slattery, then Jack McCloughan and finally Nick Porretto.
It's the third time Hahn has used his staff like that and Geneva (8-6, 5-4) has won all three games including a victory over St. Charles North.
"We have confidence in all our guys," Hahn said. "It wasn't the plan but once we realized Bryan didn't have his best stuff today we said let's go one, one, one, one and try to keep them off balance. Because a lot of times you get to the third time through the order you kind of have a feel of what the pitcher is doing, how he is setting you up, how his fastball moves. When you have to face a different guy every time though the order, that's tough."
Each Geneva reliever pitched a scoreless inning, and the final three especially got help from the Vikings' infield defense.
St. Charles East (12-4, 7-2), who dropped a second straight to the Vikings to fall into a tie with St. Charles North for the UEC River lead, hit into double plays in the fifth, sixth and seventh inning.
Each inning a different infielder started the twin killing - shortstop Jack Wassel, second baseman Justin Hasegawa and third baseman A.J. Hostman.
"Those were huge double plays," Wassel said. "We got it done when we needed to. Turning that double play with the bases loaded (in the fifth) really gave us some momentum."
Geneva's four relievers combined for 3 strikeouts, 2 walks, 2 hits and 0 runs.
"It is a good strategy and it worked for them today," Saints coach Len Asquini said. "You see three hitters and go. The next guys don't get an idea. They had really different pitchers too, that's the other thing. Each guy was really different, different angles, righty, lefty."
Geneva's bullpen was just part of the story. The other was a breakdown from the Saints middle infield, the primary culprit for 7 errors.
It started on the first batter of the game, a throwing error that allowed Jason Croci to reach. Wassel followed with the first of his 3 hits.
The Saints misplayed a ball in left field that went for an RBI double for Matthew Simpson. Garrett Davis ripped a single up the middle to score Wassel, and Hostman's groundout brought in Simpson for a 3-0 lead against Saints starter Austin Regelbrugge who gave up 4 runs but only 1 earned.
"Defensively was not a good day for us from the get-go," Asquini said. "Very surprising. That's not how we do this. Very fortunate with those defensive miscues we had opportunities to get back in the ballgame. Probably tells you how our pitchers grinded through all that."
Croci reached on another error in the second inning and scored on Wassel's single.
Geneva's fifth run came in the sixth inning when Wassel walked and eventually scored on a passed ball. Wassel finished 3-for-3, and Davis was 2-for-4.
"I was seeing the ball pretty good today just sitting on fastball mainly, seeing the pitch and trying to get a good barrel on it and it worked out well," Wassel said.
"It's a huge win for us. The past couple years have been tough against this team. Coming out here and getting this series is a good feeling and hopefully gives us momentum into the next games."
The Saints scored their 2 runs in the third. Jake Milosch and Max Powers walked to start the inning and scored on Jake Asquini's groundout and Anthony Adduci's sacrifice fly.
Austin Gift had 2 of the Saints' 5 hits.
"They made some mistakes, we took advantage of them," Hahn said. "To win in the playoffs and win in this conference those are the things that were lacking early on, now we are taking advantage of it. We're getting out of those jams. They challenged the last 3 innings and our pitchers were able to wiggle out of it. Our defense helped big time today."