Nelson pitches Geneva to 2nd straight regional

With the wind blowing in and both pitchers spinning masterpieces, a "little thing" was going to make a big difference Saturday as the host Geneva Vikings and Bartlett Hawks squared off in the Class 4A Geneva regional title game.

And that "little thing" was about 125 feet -- a bloop RBI-single near the right field foul line by the Vikings' Ryan Payne that broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning and vaulted Geneva to next Wednesday's Larkin sectional with a 2-1 win over the Hawks.

Geneva will play top seed Schaumburg.

The Vikings hadn't had much luck against Bartlett lefty Kyle King (1-2), who had notched 10 of his 13 strikeouts and given up only 2 hits going into the sixth inning.

After two strikeouts to open the inning, Cory Hofstetter reached on an error and pinch runner Matt Krammer stole second base to get in position to score an unearned run on Payne's blooper.

"I was trying to go the opposite way because he was biting the outside corner all day," Payne said. "I tried to fight it off and got a hit, and before that he was really fooling us with his curveball."

The clutch hit set the table for Viking hurler Rodney Nelson to notch his fourth victory against only one loss, while also lifting Geneva to its second straight regional title and a 21-11 overall record. But Nelson, who gave up only three infield singles and a bloop hit while fanning six Hawks, had to escape a bases-loaded jam in the seventh to seal the win.

With one out, Alex Van Ness hit a grounder to deep short that he beat out for a single and he went to second on Nick Quagliano's bloop single to center.

Both runners moved up a base when Tucker Erickson grounded out, then Kyle Burden coaxed a walk to load the bases.

Geneva second baseman Tyler Baert turned in a sparkling defensive play to close the door, going into the hole between first and second to grab George Tintera's hard ground ball, then threw across his body to nip the runner at first base.

"I just wanted to get him out any way I could," said a relieved Nelson, who relied heavily on his slider most of the afternoon. "Tyler made a great play on that ball, a major league play, and I was really happy to see it go in his glove."

Nelson helped his own cause in the third inning when he laced a one-out double into the right-centerfield gap. Pinch-runner Brian Cornick eventually scored on a passed ball to tie the game at 1-1.

Bartlett had opened the scoring with a run in the first inning, taking advantage of Geneva's misplay on a pick-off of Ryan Walker who had reached on an infield single. Walker eventually scored on Mike Derby's fielder's choice groundout.

"In the top of the sixth inning, I leaned over to my assistant coach and told him that 2 runs were going to win this game," Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. "And Payne's single looks like a rip down the line now, but I was hoping for a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh.

"We gave them kind of a gift run in the first inning, and they gave us a gift to tie it, and we got the hit we needed to make the difference," Hahn said. "I can't say enough about Rodney's pitching performance, because Bartlett has a line up that can really hit the ball."

Bartlett coach Rocco Marinucci saw his team's season end at 19-10, and he knew there was no room for error on this afternoon.

"George had a great at bat and he put the ball in play just like he was supposed to," Marinucci said. "The kid made a great play, just one more inch and it kicks off his glove and we score two runs, but that's the way baseball goes.

"Little mistakes or little missed executions were going to make a big difference today," Marinucci said in recapping how evenly matched the teams were. "Also, their hit could have gone foul, George's ball could have gone one more inch to the right."