Baseball: Breidigan, St. Charles East best Batavia
St. Charles East's defense wasn't at the top of its game Tuesday, which made it a good thing Matt Breidigan was on top of his.
Breidigan earned his first win of the season, pitching around 3 errors in the first 3 innings of a 9-2 win at Batavia.
St. Charles East (9-5, 2-2 in the Upstate Eight River) has had a couple shaky defensive games this season.
"I make mistakes on the mound too," said Breidigan, who credited his change-up as his most effective pitch Tuesday. "People get hits, that's the pitcher's version of an error. You can't really let it bother you. Mistakes happen, you work through it. We got the win, that's all that matters."
Breidigan was especially composed in the second. Ben Lynam's single was sandwiched between a pair of St. Charles East infield errors to give Batavia the bases loaded with no outs.
Breidigan struck out the next two hitters and got a fly ball to center for the third out without allowing a run to score.
"Matt kept his composure and threw some big pitches after we got him into those situations," Saints coach Len Asquini said. "That was really good to see. Our guys in the midst of a lot of the problems we've had defensively have done a nice job on the mound of controlling what they can control and that's hitting their spots and throwing their pitches for strikes."
Assistant Alex Beckmann, who coached Batavia (8-5, 3-5), called the second and third innings the turning point.
"We put a ball in play there it's a different story of the ballgame," Beckmann said. "It comes down to taking advantage of what they give us. We left bases loaded back-to-back innings and you could kind of see the wind go out of the sails. It's a game of momentum and we didn't take advantage like they took advantage."
The Saints scored 2 runs in the first and 3 in the second against Batavia starter Alex Kielion (2-1). After Anthony Adduci was hit by a pitch, Austin Gift (3-for-4) delivered a run-scoring double down the right-field line, and Gift came in on a 2-out single to left from Niko Klebosits.
Joe Sciarrino doubled to start the second-inning rally, and Adduci was again hit. Gift's hit drove in Sciarrino before Kyle Tiltges dropped a 2-run double just inside the left-field line for a 5-0 lead.
Batavia closed within 5-2 on a double from Jimmy Roach and RBI singles by Luke Beckmann and Kyle Niemiec before the Saints broke the game open with a 4-run fifth keyed by John Carroll's RBI double, a 2-run single from Sciarrino, and Corbin Marucco's run-scoring single.
Keegan Kochis allowed just 2 hits over the final 3 innings to earn the save for the Saints while Manny Cruz and Ethan Krumwiede combined for 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for Batavia.