Outlaw's double helps Maine West oust Elk Grove
Maine West rode the hit of an outlaw to steal a win from Elk Grove on Thursday at the Class 4A Oak Park baseball regional.
Eric Outlaw delivered a crushing double down the left-field line in the top of the seventh to drive home to winning run as 11th-seeded Maine West surprised Elk Grove 7-6.
Maine West (18-14) will meet Oak Park in the regional final Saturday at 11 a.m.
"Our kids came out with some energy today," Maine West coach Joe Pedersen said. "Eric came up and he knew he was facing their best, and he didn't get cheated."
With the game tied at 6 in the top of the seventh, Crosley Duckmann delivered a single to center. He then went to second on a wild pitch.
That made Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna go to his bullpen - or, rather, shortstop, where top pitcher Christian Camacho was playing. Beyna had opted to not start Camacho in the hope that'd he'd be able pitch against Oak Park in Saturday's regional final.
Camacho came on in relief to face Outlaw, who has been struggling at the plate the last few weeks.
"I had been on a cold streak," Outlaw said. "We preach, approach, approach, approach. I talked to coach and he told me what to do and I just stroked it.
"I was looking for a fastball on the first pitch, and that was what he threw me. I knew if he threw me a fastball, I would be swinging at it."
Outlaw drilled the ball down the left field line to score Duckmann easily. The Warriors then survived a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the inning to pick up the victory.
Elk Grove (22-9) beat Maine West 10-4 just 10 days ago. But Maine West wasted little time to turn the tables on the Grenadiers.
The Warriors jumped all over Elk Grove in their first at bat, knocking out 5 singles that translated in to 4 runs. After Jake Riportella walked to start the game, singles by Sean Russell, Duckmann, Alex Zimmerman, Kyle Divelbiss and Dillon Ronan made it 4-0.
"We got on top of it right away," said Duckmann, whose sacrifice fly in the second to score Riportella, who had doubled earlier made it 5-0. "We wanted to aggressive at the plate the whole game. We have been working hard knowing that we have to play small baseball to win."
Pedersen said that the loss his team suffered to Elk Grove ended up helping his team.
"We took a look after that game," Pedersen said. "If you throw strikes and play defense you should win games. That's not what we did the first time we played them."
Elk Grove showed why it was the Mid Suburban League champs.The Grens battled back to tie the game in the sixth.
They got close when they tallied 4 times in the fourth, sparked by consecutive single by Brandon Post, Jack McEnroe and Austin Shallcross, along with a 2-run single by Camacho.
Maine West pulled ahead 6-4 on a RBI single by Joe Swanson.
The Grens then tied it the next inning on a sacrifice fly by McEnroe to score Post, who had tripled. Shallcross, who had 3 hits, singled and stole second and came home on A.J. Lorenz's single.
Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna does not regret his decision to hold back top pitcher Camacho in favor of his No. 2 and 3 pitchers, who both faced Maine West.
"We were commuted to winning a regional championship," Beyna said. "And we were committed to our plan.
"I don't really think that is what it came down to. It is about matchups, and we made a decision and we will stick by our decision."