Elgin 6, Larkin 4

It was the kind of sloppy inning that had sunk the Elgin baseball team twice already this season.

But one bad inning didn't torpedo the Maroons against rival Larkin in the finale of the two-game Upstate Eight Conference series Wednesday afternoon.

Visiting Elgin gave up 3 unearned runs in the third, but the Maroons battled back by adjusting their approach at the plate to strike for 6 runs on 6 hits in the fifth.

That outburst was enough of a cushion for Elgin starting pitcher Tom Roth (1-1), who went the distance on 85 pitches to seal a 6-4 victory, the first win of the season for the Maroons (1-3, 1-3).

"We didn't hold our heads down," said Elgin second-year coach David Foerster, who earned his first career victory against Larkin. "We were confident we could come back and we did it. That was the biggest thing I was pleased with today."

Trailing 3-0 in the fifth, the Maroons changed their strategy to great effect against Larkin starting pitcher Luc Geier, who, to that point, had allowed just 2 hits and had retired seven in a row.

Foerster and Elgin assistant coach Mike Pierce instructed their right-hand heavy lineup to take Geier's outside pitches up the middle or the opposite way to right field.

Ben Hamblen led off with a single and Mike Stackowiak followed with a bloop to center field that fell just out of the reach of closing Larkin defenders.

The runners then moved to second and third on a passed ball, but they couldn't advance when Larkin left fielder Cam Kinley made a nice sliding play on a hard-hit liner off the bat of senior Josh Smith.

However, No. 9 hitter Sergio Fuentes followed with another bloop single, this time to shallow left, scoring Hamblen to trim Elgin's deficit to 3-1.

"There was one ball to start the inning I thought we should have caught in the outfield," Larkin coach Doug Ellett said. "I would have liked to have seen our shortstop go harder after a couple of those."

Dan Schmerber (2-for-4) followed with a double to right field that scored Stackowiak before Ben Stone whacked a Geier outside fastball over the right fielder's head to score a pair, giving the Maroons a 4-3 lead.

"All the sudden the team started building momentum," Stone said. "I was just trying to hit it and get it into a gap. It felt good.

"The team has been building on a consistent basis. Game after game we've been getting better and better. We've just been waiting for our W and we got it today."

Said Geier: "(Catcher) Jake (Kane) was calling for the outside and I hit the spots. They just hit it."

Ellett went to the mound to try to settle Geier, but Roth stepped up and ripped the next pitch for a 2-run home run to left-center that staked the Maroons to a 6-3 lead.

"Coach told me to look fastball," Roth said. "It was a knee-high fastball and, to be honest, I didn't think it was going to go so I just started hauling down the first-base line. Then the umpire went like this (signals home run).

"We were just part of a rally. We came back. We were down and this team fought back."

Larkin got a run back in its half of the fifth when Tyler Shore led off with a double, moved to third on a single by Joe Stace and beat a bouncing relay throw home after Justin Kalusa's sacrifice fly to left field.

The Royals (3-4, 2-2) threatened in the sixth when Kane drew the only walk of the day from Roth and Kinley followed with a single. However, Roth induced a grounder back to the mound and a lazy flyball before striking out Shore on a fastball to end the threat.

Roth then struck out the leadoff hitter in the seventh and got 2 groundball outs to end the game.

"It's real big," Roth said of the team's first win. "I knew we had it in us. Maybe this will spark something."