Kaneland rallies in 7th to beat Geneva
Slump? What slump? Mike Pritchard was worried about his swing before the finale of Thursday's Geneva-Kaneland series. The senior cleanup hitter had gone the first two games this week without a hit, even though he had been hitting the ball hard.
His coach, Brian Aversa, laughed it off when Pritchard asked him. Aversa got an even bigger laugh when congratulating Pritchard on his 2-run home run in the first inning.
"He was rounding third and I said, 'You still think something is wrong with your swing?" Aversa said. "That was great to see him have a great day. That's something we expect out of Mike."
Pritchard's blast got Kaneland off to a good start. Geneva responded with 4 runs in its half of the first, but Steve Colombe and Joe Gura shut the door after that, allowing the Knights to rally to tie and then go ahead for good in the seventh.
Kaneland's 7-5 victory kept the Knights from an 0-3 start to what looks like it will be another entertaining Western Sun race.
"We wanted this one bad," Aversa said. "We were getting down on ourselves. These guys pulled through, they came through today."
Geneva (6-2, 2-1) capitalized on Colombe's wildness in the first inning, scoring its 4 runs on just 2 hits. Jack Delabar's 2-run single to left tied the game at 2, then Ryan Mallon put Geneva ahead with an opposite field double down the right-field line.
Kaneland (6-3, 1-2) tied the game with 2 runs in the fourth against Geneva starter Alex Sroka (1-1). Pritchard walked to start the inning and scored on Jeff Smith's single. With runners at the corners, Blake Kendrick came home when Geneva made a throwing error on Smith's steal attempt.
Pritchard reached base all 4 times, scoring 3 runs, including his second career home run.
"The first two games we had a lot of strikeouts so if we had two strikes we were trying to protect a lot more," Pritchard said. "We've been working on that hard the last few days. We were really patient at the plate."
That patience really paid off in the game-winning rally in the seventh. Jake Tickle's single got it going. Joe Camiliere drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly.
Kaneland added two more insurance runs when Ty Hamer and Smith drew bases-loaded walks against reliever John Hanson. Sroka had worked the first 6 2/3, while Colombe pitched 5 innings for Kaneland before Joe Gura (1-1) threw the final 2 for the win.
"They were down to their last couple pitchers so we were patient at the plate," Aversa said. "Steve did a great job of getting us to a point in the game where we could take him out and let Joe go the rest of the way."
Sroka's 2 hits led Geneva. The Vikings scored a run in the seventh when Jason Adams led off with a single and eventually scored, but they left Cory Hofstetter in the on-deck circle as the potential tying run.
"We came out like gangbusters in the first inning and then kind of went in a funk," Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. "I thought he (Colombe) did a nice job keeping our hitters off balance."
Hahn said Kaneland's rally from 11-0 down in a 12-9 loss Wednesday helped the Knights Thursday.
"We talk about winning series, so we're happy about that, but we also talk about not being satisfied," Hahn said. "That's one thing we need to learn, when you have a team on the ropes like that. I think it goes back to yesterday, we let them back in the game, they came in here thinking they could beat us. Obviously, they could beat us. If we put them away yesterday, maybe they come in with a little different attitude."
Geneva did get some good news Thursday when senior Sean Grady went to the doctor and learned he might be able to return from his finger injury in as soon as two weeks.
"The finger seems to be OK, it is the cut the spike caused is real deep in his finger, they are worried if he comes back too soon it will keep ripping open," Hahn said. "Hopefully we will have him for at least half the year."