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Baseball: St. Charles East comes through against Prospect

The St. Charles East baseball team didn't take last Saturday off just because rain fell most of the day.

The Saints spent time in the batting cage working on situational hitting, particularly their two-strike approach.

So on Tuesday when junior left-handed hitter Charlie Charpentier faced a 2-2 count against Prospect right-handed starting pitcher Ben Courtney with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the fourth, he had a plan in mind.

"I'm thinking I just need to put something in play, get something on the ground, get a run across," Charpentier said.

Indeed, the junior pulled a seeing-eye roller between first base and second for a hit, scoring 2 runs. Charpentier took second on the throw home from the outfield. When the Prospect catcher threw to second base to try to stop him, teammate John Carroll rounded third and scored ahead of an errant return throw that allowed Charpentier to trot to third.

Three runs scored on the play to make it 4-0 Saints when the dust settled in the Saints' eventual 6-3 win.

"He just kept running. He's a fast one," Saints coach Len Asquini said of Carroll's baserunning. "I liked that. That was excellent work by our guys."

Pat Griffin's ensuing groundout to first base scored Charpentier to stake St. Charles East starting pitcher Niko Klebosits (1-1) to a 5-0 lead.

Klebosits limited the Knights to 3 hits in 4 scoreless innings. He walked 2 and struck out 3.

The big inning proved to be enough for St. Charles East (3-1), though comeback-minded Prospect (1-2) came within one big hit of tying the game in the seventh. Facing Kyle Tiltges, making his first varsity pitching appearance, the Knights scored twice to draw within 6-3, thanks to run-scoring basehits by cleanup hitter Nick DeCapri and Ryan Roggeman.

Prospect had the bases loaded with one away, but Tiltges induced a shallow fly ball to Griffin in right field for the second out. No. 9 hitter John Morgan then sent a 1-1 pitch to deep center field, but Joe Sciarrino squeezed it with room to spare for the final out.

The Knights made 4 physical errors and a couple of mental ones. They scored a run in the fifth inning to pull within 5-1, but the inning could have been bigger had a baserunner not overrun third base and gotten caught in a rundown. The Knights eventually left the bases loaded when reliever Josh Soderstrom fanned Roggeman looking.

"It's our philosophy as a program: You play the game hard and you play the game smart," Prospect coach Ross Giusti said. "And when you're not doing both it's tough, especially when you fall behind. We put ourselves in some situations where we didn't play smart baseball."

The Saints benefitted from three sparkling defensive plays from junior shortstop John Dellostritto, the most impressive of which was a diving stop of a first-inning groundball up the middle. From a prone position he flipped the ball to second baseman Carroll, who turned an inning-ending double play to save a run.

"I just looked, saw (Carroll) and gave him a little backhand," Dellostritto said.

Both teams are back in action Wednesday. St. Charles East welcomes Fremd. Prospect plays a split doubleheader against Bartlett and Prairie Ridge.

  St. Charles East shortstop John Dellostritto makes a diving stop before throwing the Prospect runner out at first during baseball action in St. Charles Tuesday. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.comSt. Charles East pitcher Niko Klebosits delivers to a Prospect batter during baseball action in St. Charles Tuesday.
  Prospect's Ryan Roggeman gets tagged out by St. Charles East catcher Zach Rupp after getting caught in a rundown during baseball action in St. Charles Tuesday. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
  Prospect's Ryan Howe chases down St. Charles East's Justin Galante before throwing him out in a rundown during baseball action in St. Charles Tuesday. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
  Prospect catcher Nick DeCapri glowers toward the field as St. Charles East's John Dellostritto crosses the plate without a throw during baseball action in St. Charles Tuesday. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
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