South Elgin lights it up against Batavia

The Class 4A state baseball tournament seems to bring out the best in South Elgin's offense.

In 2014, the Storm entered the playoffs hitting .287 as a team only to erupt for 46 runs in 5 games to clinch a berth in the state finals, eventually finishing third.

With five regulars from that squad back in the lineup this spring, No. 7 seed South Elgin entered Thursday's playoff opener against No. 10 Batavia hitting .331 as a team, and the hits kept on coming, even against Bulldogs ace Evan Acosta.

Batavia took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on Tyler Kledzik's 2-run double off South Elgin starting pitcher Max Keough, but the Storm responded with a 5-run fourth inning, 3 more in the fifth and 1 in the sixth to win the regional semifinal 9-2 at Wheaton North.

South Elgin (22-7) collected 10 hits in 26 at-bats (. 385), compared to 8 hits for Batavia (16-19).

"This is what we did in the playoffs last year," Keough said. "We hit really well."

The victory advances South Elgin to the Wheaton North regional title game against No. 2 sectional seed Willowbrook (26-9) on Saturday at 11 a.m.

"I know that they're scrappy," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said of Willowbrook. "They're a 25-plus win team and that doesn't happen by accident, so we'll have to play our best ball to beat them."

Acosta and Keough each pitched 3 scoreless innings until the respective offenses awoke in the fourth.

Batavia struck first. Kyle Niemiec and Luke Beckman opened the inning with consecutive singles before Kledzik clubbed a 2-run, line-drive double to the center-field wall.

The Storm responded in their half as Justin Howard, Mitch Butvilas and Joey Roberson - three newcomers to the lineup in 2015 - singled consecutively to open the inning. Roberson's roller up the middle made it a 2-1 game.

"It was important because we had to get the momentum back," said Roberson, who played for Bartlett in the 2014 playoffs. "It was big for us to get back-to-back hits."

After a sacrifice bunt by Danny Asa, No. 9 hitter Kevin Barry sent a groundball up the middle of the diamond, which was fielded by Batavia's shortstop but thrown away at first base, allowing both runners to score for a 3-2 South Elgin lead.

Storm leading hitter Kyle Hays followed Dane Toppel's single with a 2-run double, staking his team to a 5-2 advantage. South Elgin scored 5 runs in the frame on 6 hits and an error.

"It felt just like state last year," Hays said of the lively offense. "We want to go back down again. The feeling's fantastic."

South Elgin's offensive outburst surprised Batavia.

"We went into this game thinking it was going to be low scoring," Batavia coach Matt Holm said. "When we strung those 2 (runs) together I went, 'Whoa, Evan's on fire right now and things are going to be good.' That's what we expected the whole game. I didn't expect to hit that much. I didn't expect them to hit that much, but that that's the difference in the game: they outhit us. And that's saying a lot because we hit the ball pretty well, I thought."

Keough, committed to Wisconsin-Oshkosh, yielded only the 2 earned runs in the fourth inning. Though he allowed 8 hits, the right-hander was able to last 7 innings because he issued only 1 walk and struck out 8 in a 96-pitch performance.

Acosta was relieved after 5 innings. He allowed 8 runs on 9 hits, but 2 of those runs were unearned due to 2 Batavia errors. The Western Michigan-bound left-hander issued no walks and struck out a pair. Creighton-bound right-hander Mitch Boyer finished up in the sixth inning, allowing an earned run on 1 hit and a suicide squeeze bunt by senior Jared Kramer.

Beckman went 3-for-3 and Steven Busby finished 2-for-4 for Batavia.

Barry, Howard and Hays each had 2 hits for South Elgin.