Baseball: Hampshire comes back to beat Marengo

It was a command, not a request.

"That's it. No more runs. Figure it out," deep-voiced Hampshire baseball coach John Sarna told his team after the Whip-Purs allowed 3 first-inning runs against visiting Marengo.

Figure it out, they did.

Four pitchers combined to keep the Indians scoreless over the next 6 innings, and junior Kyle Homa turned the game around with one swing of his bat in an 8-3 nonconference win for Hampshire (9-7).

Making only his second varsity start, Marengo freshman Ryan Wilwers allowed a first-inning run but still led 3-1 in the third inning when he ran into bigger trouble.

Hampshire loaded the bases with no outs on an infield single by Tyler Maglaya, a popup off the bat of Carter Lawler that fell for a hit and a clean single to left from Michael Kruse.

Cue Homa, who went 2-for-3 last week against high-powered Jacobs but was hitless in 8 ensuing at-bats over 3 games.

The left-handed hitter fell behind in the count, took a ball to even it at 2-2 and then sent a deep flyball to the left-center field gap that fell between Marengo outfielders. Maglaya, courtesy runner Carlos Puente and Kruse all scored to stake Hampshire to a 4-3 lead.

"I thought they were going to make the play at first," Homa said. "When I saw them all score I was standing at second with a big smile on my face because I realized I finally did my job. I was in a little bit of a slump, but I came out of that."

Matt Wians contributed an RBI single during a 2-run fifth inning and Kevin Michaelsen capped the scoring with a 2-run double in the sixth.

"We're known to come back," Sarna said. "Unfortunately, we're known to put ourselves in a hole. I knew we could come back from a handful of runs."

Hampshire pitchers Alex Mahaz, Bryan Diete, Pawel Barnas and Lawler held the Indians to 3 earned runs on 7 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4. Diete (3-0) picked up the win with 2 scoreless innings.

Wilwers allowed 5 earned runs in 4-plus innings, but he minimized the damage from 10 hits by issuing only 1 walk and striking out a pair.

"I thought he pitched real well," Marengo coach Josh Maas said "He learned that if you make a mistake down the middle - against freshmen you might get away with it - but he left one down the middle to (Homa) and that was kind of the ballgame right there. But I was real happy with the way he threw."

Tyler Maglaya led Hampshire's 14-hit attack with a 4-for-4 performance that included 2 doubles. The 5-foot-8, 150-pound junior drove in a first-inning run with a double after Noah Schrader led off with a triple.

Marengo (4-11) collected 7 hits, 2 apiece from John Henning and Phillip Bowen.