Baseball: Warren gobbles up a win over Antioch

That Asian cole slaw looked marvelous on the full plate. And yes, in this case the treats went to the winners.

Warren (12-5) hit plenty of foul balls on Saturday morning. But when the ball did enter the playing field, the Blue Devils swiped bags seemingly at will.

Center fielder Tanner Dyer had a 4-hit day, and 3 of those came on gorgeous bunts. He also scored all 4 times.

Warren's baseball team rang up 17 hits to Antioch's 2 and beat the visiting Sequoits 12-2 in six innings.

"They kept on playing back on me,'' Dyer said. "We came out aggressive today."

The Sequoits had made the trek to Gurnee riding high after winning 9 of their last 10.

"They kind of nickled and dimed us,'' said Antioch baseball coach Chris Malec.

This first-year coach is a former Sequoits star pitcher. He watched as his present pitching staff was rocked on this morning.

"(Warren) did what we had been doing,'' he said. "We still like to play big side of the conference, though."

Warren coach Clint Smothers brought in a sophomore to pitch to Antioch. And Riley Kocen, was effective allowing just 1 hit in his first 4 innings.

Kocen, however, had a hard time defining what was on his lunch plate that the Warren families had presented him with. He was better at what was working for him on the mound.

"I relied on my two-seam fastball,'' Kocen said. "I tried to throw strikes and let them hit it."

After surrendering a second-inning single to Antioch catcher Alex Unekis, the right-hander retired 9 Antioch hitters in a row. He did strike out nor walk a single hitter.

In the meantime, Kocen's offense kicked into high gear.

Dyer's first bunt single led off the 2-run second for Warren. Lucas Schmitt scored Dyer after a groundout. Schmitt grounded out to second three times in a row yet still finished with 4 RBI. He added a 2-run single in the fourth.

Warren first baseman Ryan Davila had 3 hits in row in this win. He singled and scored in the 3-run third.

"We had a lot of quality at-bats today,'' Smothers said. "We had been swinging at bad pitches but we had a good practice and told the kids to have a plan out there."

After eight straight singles, the Warren hitters added a few two-base hits in a 3-run fourth inning. It was a 5-hit fourth. Ricky Bergstrom, Matt Burch and Matt Temaner (3 hits and a walk) had the singles in the frame. Davila and Dyer had the doubles.

Antioch (11-7) dented the scoreboard in the fifth. Sophomore, John Petty, had Antioch's second hit of the day and he scored in this 2-run uprising.

Schmitt's hit scored both Davila and Dyer as Warren matched the Antioch score in the fifth. Michael Rosenberg, who supplied two sliding catches in left field for Warren, drove in the game-winner in the Warren sixth.