Baseball: St. Edward's Falco no-hits Hinckley-Big Rock
There's no place like home sweet home. At least that was the case for starting pitcher Dan Falco and the rest of the St. Edward baseball team on Saturday.
After opening the season with three blowout losses on the road the Green Wave bounced back in their home opener as Falco fired a no-hitter in 16-1 five-inning slaughter rule win against Hinckley-Big Rock at Wing Park in Elgin.
Falco, a sophomore, struck out 5 batters, walked 2, and hit another in his first outing of the year. One of those walks led to an unearned run in the third inning, but that was all the damage the visiting Royals could muster against Falco, who effectively mixed a two-seam fastball with a slow curve.
“The big thing was he threw strikes,” St. Edward coach Tim Dovichi said. “He was able to keep them off balance by spotting his fastball and mixing in the curve. It was a great first game for him out of the gate.”
Pitching in front of the home crowd and getting some great support both offensively and defensively helped Falco to settle in. The Green Wave committed just 2 errors and scored runs in every inning.
“It's always great to play at home,” Falco said. “And getting a no-hitter is pretty awesome. I was just focusing on throwing strikes because I have a lot of trust in my defense behind me I was getting a lot of tailing action on my two-seam and I got more and more comfortable throwing the curveball as the game went on.”
The Green Wave pounded out 13 hits and took full advantage of 10 free passes and 5 errors by H-BR.
Senior Karl Dibler led the offensive attack with 3 hits and 3 RBI. Dibler was just 1 of 2 seniors playing for St. Edward. Three others were away on spring break.
“It was nice to play at home,” Dibler said. “It was almost like being able to start our season all over. It was especially nice to get a win. We were much more aggressive at the plate today. It was a big improvement over our first games.”
Nolan Theriault got the Green Wave on the board in the first inning with an RBI single. He went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI.
St. Edward scored 4 times in the second inning with an RBI from Dibler and Matt Schimbke along with a pair of unearned runs. Schimbke and Dylan Murray had RBI singles in a 5-run third inning that extended the lead to 10-1. The Green Wave put it away in the fourth inning with 6 more runs. Dibler had an RBI single and an RBI double in the inning. Theriault also drove in a run with a single.
“It all kind of came together for us today,” Dovichi said. “It's was a beautiful day. We were in front of the home crowd. We swung the bats well. It's just what we needed.”