Baseball: Westminster Christian outslugs Elgin Academy

Westminster Christian junior Mason Runkel's midseason slump ended in a marathon at-bat in Monday's 9-6 nonconference victory against visiting Elgin Academy.

A junior playing his second season of varsity baseball, Runkel said he had been struggling to contribute to the Warriors' offense of late.

That changed with one swing when he hit the 11th pitch of his fifth-inning at-bat for a 3-run home run to straightaway left field that staked the Warrirors to their first lead, 7-6, and capped a 6-run inning.

"Going in confident and knowing a slump won't last forever really got me through that at-bat," Runkel said.

After falling behind in the count 1-2, Westminster Christian's No. 5 hitter fouled off five pitches from Elgin Academy starting pitcher Ethan Hill in between Ball 2 and Ball 3.

"He just kept fighting and fighting," Westminster coach Luke Rojas said. "It was nice to see him really start to see the ball in that at-bat. Hopefully, that breaks him out. We've got a big week coming up this week so we need him hot."

Westminster's 6-run sixth - which included a run-scoring double by Sam Huguley, an fielder's choice RBI from Matthew Schulenburg and Tyler Shoemann's RBI single - was followed by a 2-run sixth inning against reliever Jonathan Cruz. Schulenberg and Kilian Vasica drove in those insurance runs.

Hill allowed 7 earned runs on 9 hits and a walk and notched 1 strikeout. He threw 87 pitches over 5 innings, a necessity considering the Hilltoppers have 3 more games this week.

"We went young to give (Hill) some exposure in a great environment," said Elgin Academy coach Steve Shapiro, whose team slipped to 12-2. "I'll take it. It's a learning experience. We're learning here."

The Hilltoppers built a 6-1 lead through 4½ innings against Schulenberg with help from Ethan Plantz (2-for-4, double, 3 RBI), Kevin Kuykendall (2-for-3, double, RBI) and Hamza Aziz (2-for-3).

The Warriors' comeback was led by Schulenberg (2-for-4, 2 RBI), Huguley

JT Stoll (2-for-3) and Vasica (1-for-3, 3 RBI).

Stoll nailed down a 2-inning save after the Warriors took the lead. He limited the visitors to 1 hit to make the comeback stand up.

"It's very important," Schoemann said of beating Elgin Academy. "We're always neck and neck when we play each other and some words get tossed around. Plus, it's really important for seeding."

Westminster Christian and Elgin Academy both are assigned to subsectional B of the Class 1A Judson University sectional.