Wrap: Streamwood stymies Storm; Conant ends Larkin's season
Critics who call baseball an individual sport don't take into account a team's gameplan at the plate against a particular starting pitcher -- the type of plan Streamwood rode to victory Tuesday.
Ryan Kiesel all but gave away Streamwood's blueprint for success in the first at-bat of the Sabres' 13-3 Class 4A regional play-in game victory at South Elgin.
The lead-off man ran the count full against Storm starting pitcher Josh Myers and fouled off 2 pitches before he singled sharply to right field. "We've been told all year to be patient," Kiesel said.
Because they hadn't seen Myers pitch in three regular-season games with South Elgin, the rest of the Sabres duplicated Kiesel's patient at-bat, trying to work the count deep and work it in their favor until they saw a pitch to drive.
The patient approach resulted in 3 walks and 8 hits against Myers (4-3), whose pitch count topped 70 in the third inning. Streamwood (13-18) then bunched 5 hits together in the fourth inning against the right-hander to score 4 runs and open a 7-2 lead.
"We've been preaching to these guys all year that you've got to go deep in the count," Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said. "When it's 2-2 or 3-2 and you're battling, there's only so much a pitcher has in the arsenal. You have to capitalize when it happens."
Walking 10 hitters was just one reason South Elgin remains in search of the school's first postseason baseball victory.
"Besides walking (10) guys, we hit three guys and we booted the ball six times," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. "When you give a team that many opportunities, you're not going to win a ballgame."
South Elgin (12-14) didn't have any luck solving Streamwood starting pitcher Mike Diebold (5-5). The sophomore pitched a complete-game 5-hitter with 5 strikeouts and 1 walk.
"It's a lot easier pitching when you have run support and you don't have to worry about anything," Diebold said.
Diebold allowed 1 run unearned run the third inning, a solo home run to Kyle Kinyon in the fifth, and a seventh-inning run on Ryan Kellner's RBI double.
"Their pitcher did a real nice job," Kating said. "He got ahead and worked ahead. He kept us off balance a little bit and worked quick. They did get timely hitting and they made us pay the price for walking people."
Most of Streamwood's timely hitting occurred in its 4-run fourth. With two Sabres aboard with two outs, Matt Korntved labeled a triple to the right field corner that scored Josh Harris and Kiesel for a 5-1 lead. Jason Overton then doubled in a run and Gabe Roman tripled off the center field fence to establish a 7-1 lead.
Streamwood advances to today's regional semifinal against host Geneva (19-10) at 4:30 p.m.
Baseball
Conant 13, Larkin 7: Conant had definitely scouted Larkin starter Tyler Shore.
The Cougars knew that Shore's first pitch was a fastball over the plate, and they took full advantage.
Highlighted by Arkansas-bound Austin Wright's home run, Conant smacked Shore's first pitch for 4 big hits and scored 8 runs in the first four innings. Despite a late Larkin run, the Cougars clinched a 13-7 victory in the play-in game of the Class 4A Schaumburg baseball regional Tuesday at Larkin.
The victory sets Conant (9-15) up with a MSL rematch against No. 1 seed Schaumburg (21-6) today. The last time the two teams met, Conant rode Wright into a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning, before falling 3-2 in the ninth.
The Cougars are hoping the offensive output from Tuesday carries over.
"We came out swinging," said Wright (3-2), who will take the mound against Schaumburg. "A lot of us were working on it over the weekend."
Conant jumped out to a 1-0 lead early when Mark Cherese and Bobby Colucci hit Shore's first 2 pitches into the outfield. Cherese scored off of Bill Charvat's sacrifice fly.
Wright extended the lead to 3-0 when he took Shore's first pitch right over the 365-foot center field wall.
Colucci took a first pitch deep in the fourth turning it into an RBI double, which scored Tom Houle. Third baseman Jeff Vercillo came through with a 3-run double in the seventh, which helped stave off a late Larkin run.
"You have to give them a lot of credit," Larkin coach Doug Ellett said. "They hit the daylights out of the ball. They were jumping all over him. They must have seen Tyler."
Charavat (3 for 4, 4 runs, 2 RBI) went deep in the sixth inning to put Conant up 8-0. The Cougars finished with 17 hits, including 5 extra-base hits.
"I knew (Shore) had some good stuff," Conant coach Jerry Song said. "I said, 'If it's there, jump on it.' I was happy with the way we were swinging the bats today."
Larkin (13-16) started swinging late.
After Conant took an 8-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth, Larkin scored 4 runs ito make it an 8-4 game. Conant pulled starter Walt Wijas (2-1) after he went 5 innings, giving up no runs and 2 hits.
Trailing 13-4 in the bottom of the seventh, the Royals were still not done. John Banks nailed a 2-run double off of Derek Wojcik, who gave up 3 earned runs off of 4 hits in 2 innings of work.
Jake Kane then singled to score Banks, but Shore struck out to end the game.
-- Matt Stacionis
Rochelle 12, Burlington Central 11: Burlington Central hit 5 home runs at windy Rochelle, but the blasts weren't enough to carry the Rockets to victory in a Class 3A regional play-in game on Tuesday.
Austin Jarvis hit 2 home runs and drove in three and Bryan Bell, Ryan Mattes and Zack Romando also homered, but it wasn't enough to stave off a 12-11 defeat.
The Rockets (15-12) rallied for 3 runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game 11-11 on Bell's 2-run single with one out.
However, Rochelle pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the seventh when Steve Flynn rolled a single through the hole between third and short to score the winning run from second base.
"We just couldn't get the big out when we needed it," said Burlington Central coach Kyle Nelson. "What really hurt was the sixth inning when they scored 2 runs on us after we had two outs with no one on base."
Central scored 3 runs in the first inning and 2 runs in the third to take a 5-2 lead, but Rochelle erupted for a 7-run third, keyed by Dan Ruppenthal's grand slam.
David Hartwell (3-1) took the loss for Central after giving up a double and an infield hit in the seventh.
Bell, who finished 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBI at the plate, relieved Hartwell and gave up the game-winning hit.
Glenbard West 10, Elgin 1: The Maroons fell short against host Glenbard West in a play-in game of the Class 4A Geneva Regional.
Junior Tom Roth (3-6) absorbed the loss. In 3 innings he allowed 6 hits with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Ben Stone doubled, the only extra basehit of the day for the Maroons, who finished the season 5-23.
"When you spot a team 6 runs in the first inning it's a battle to come back," Elgin coach David Foerster said. "We struggled with hitting and also made 5 errors, which makes it hard to recover afterward.
"They are a great group of kids and I really enjoyed being around them everyday. We have some work to do with the summer team in order to get ready for next spring."
Boys volleyball
Bartlett d. Rolling Meadows:ŒAt the Rolling Meadows egional the Hawks came out on top defeating Rolling Meadows in two tough matches 25-22, 25-18. John Campolo and Scott Kuehn led at the net posting 8 kills each for Bartlett. Chris Guimon also added 9 kills with 1 ace to help keep the Hawks (20-12) in the lead. Ryan Lynch tallied 10 digs as Jason Theobald recorded 29 assists to push Bartlett into today's regional title match against St. Francis.
Lake Park d. Larkin: The Royals' season came to an end Tuesday night as fifth-seeded Lake Park defeated Larkin 25-22, 25-15 at the West Chicago regional. Senior Brad Potts led for Larkin (5-31) with 6 kills, 2 blocks and 3 digs. Joe Leganski also kept busy at the net blocking 3 with 3 kills and 3 digs. Daniel Dominguez (2 blocks, 3 kills), Alan Rosenburg (3 blocks, 1 kill, 2 digs) and Mike Jetel (3 blocks) all contributed to this tough loss. Senior setter Brendyn Dobbeck tallied 11 assists with 3 digs in final action for the Royals.