Baseball: Glenbard West falls to Hinsdale South

Hinsdale South made some uncharacteristic mistakes Thursday in its West Suburban Conference crossover baseball matchup with Glenbard West.

But the senior-laden Hornets more than made up for those with their bats in an 11-5 victory in Glen Ellyn.

The visitors knocked out 12 hits in improving to 12-2 on the spring as they get ready to take on Downers Grove South in a key WSC Gold series.

"The kids have been really battling at the plate," said Hinsdale South coach Paul Hoel of his team, which had seven seniors in the starting lineup. "They've been grinding, going the other way. It's a good group, they really swing the bats well, they are pesky. And we can run a bit and bunt a bit."

Zach Duffy opened the scoring for the Hornets with an RBI single in the third inning. Hinsdale South pushed across four more in the fourth, with Mike Nicosia's 2-run single the big blow.

"One through nine, everyone can swing the bat," Nicosia said. "We have confidence in ourselves and that goes a long way. Plus our pitching is very deep."

The Hilltoppers (2-8) made things interesting in the fifth, scoring four runs. Sam Kaske knocked in a run while the home team also capitalized on a couple of Hornets errors.

But Hinsdale South quickly answered with a run in the sixth and five more in the seventh.

"It's been kind of a different story each day," Glenbard West coach Andy Schultz said. "One day we swing the bats well and lose 11-8 and the next day we pitch and play defense well and lose 2-1. It's been a tough go the last week or so, but we are trying to stick with the positives and build on them and keep improving. We just need more consistency."

Jaxon Herchenbach worked five innings on the mound to record the win for the Hornets, and Zack Wenkus pitched the final two innings in relief.