Baseball: Defense lifts St. Charles East over Batavia

The St. Charles East baseball team picked the ball up cleanly to pick up a series win over host Batavia on Thursday.

The inconsistent Saints have been plagued in recent losses by a rash of errors, but "the good St. Charles showed up," coach Len Asquini said after an errorless, 6-2 Upstate Eight River road win.

"When we don't make errors we win. It's been like that every single game," Saints shortstop Thomas Adams said. "It's either zero or it's like six or seven, it seems. If we don't make errors, it puts us in a good position to win."

The Saints were in precisely such a position in the top of the fifth. With the game tied 1-1, they rallied for 5 runs to make a winner of right-hander Steve Podany. The 5-foot-10, 195-pound senior tossed a 108-pitch 6-hitter in which he struck out 6 and issued a lone walk.

"My changeup was working well," said Podany (3-1). "I was throwing it for strikes. It wasn't getting cold in my hand or anything. I just pounded the zone."

St. Charles East (10-6, 3-3) won the rubber game of the 3-game series against Batavia (9-6, 4-5), which was missing a key player: Kyle Niemiec. The team's cleanup hitter rolled his ankle coming in from center field after Wednesday's game and sat out Thursday with a high-ankle sprain, coach Matt Holm said. Holm hopes to have him back next week.

Without Niemiec, who belted a pair of 2-run doubles in Batavia's win on Wednesday, the Bulldog lineup didn't bear its teeth, settling for 6 hits.

"(Wednesday) was a great day and (Thursday) was just kind of a ho-hummer," Holm said. "Just one inning where they took advantage and then you're battling back. It seemed to go quick."

The big blow in St. Charles East's fifth-inning rally was a go-ahead triple by Adams, the No. 9 hitter. With teammate Joe Sciarrino on first base courtesy of a walk by Batavia senior left-handed starting pitcher Ben Lynam, Adams twice tried to bring him home via a squeeze bunt to no avail. He then smacked a 2-2 pitch for a triple to the right-center field wall to put the Saints ahead 2-1.

"I was frustrated that I couldn't get those down, but I guess I made up for it," Adams said. "Everyone was joking with me like, 'Hey did you do it on purpose?' I was just happy that I could provide for my team and get us our first lead of the game."

Andrew Costigan had 2 hits for Batavia, including a double.

Kyle Tiltges finished 3-for-4 with 2 RBI and Jim Dale (RBI) had 2 hits, including a triple, for the Saints.