Eichmann, Cats connect, beat Antioch

By the time he batted in the sixth inning, Joe Eichmann knew the home-plate umpire's strike zone.

And this pitch was going to be a perfect strike.

"It was a pitch right down the middle," Eichmann, a Libertyville sophomore, said with wide eyes. "A hitter's dream."

Eichmann swung and connected. The ball sailed over Antioch's center-field fence for his first varsity home run. The 2-run shot provided some insurance runs for Eichmann, who also pitched 6 effective innings in Libertyville's come-from-behind, 13-6 win in a North Suburban Conference crossover Thursday.

Libertyville improved to 11-3, while Antioch, which was without coach Paul Petty, whose father passed away this week, fell to 3-10.

Despite the win, Libertyville coach Jim Schurr was disappointed in what he called his team's "mental preparation and approach."

The Wildcats made 4 errors, all in the first four innings, which helped Antioch build a 5-1 lead. A day earlier, Libertyville beat Stevenson and Clemson-recruit Scott Firth in a 2-1 thriller played before about a dozen Major League scouts.

"We come off beating Stevenson and they had their back patted all day long," Schurr said.

A letdown wouldn't have been a surprise, and maybe it was just that for Libertyville.

"This happened to us before (in Arizona)," Eichmann said. "We really need to figure it out that just because a team is not as good as the team that we played before, we still got to bring the same intensity. We were just not there today."

Eichmann didn't have a good start, either, but not because he wasn't focused or prepared for his mound start.

He walked the first two batters he faced.

After Logan Kent reached on an infield single, Eichmann got a strikeout. But then the Wildcats made a pair of infield errors, and Antioch eventually scored 3 runs in the inning with Dillon Healy and Brett Prather earning RBI.

"As a young pitcher, he's got to learn to adjust to the umpire," Schurr said of his young right-hander. "He wasn't getting the low strike, and in the first inning there were some pitches that were right at the knees (that were called balls)."

"The strike zone was a little different from I thought it would be," Eichmann said. "I just had to get used to what the ump was calling. Unfortunately, it took me two batters to figure it out."

Antioch hiked its lead to 5-1 in the fourth on Andy Danna's RBI single and Alex Grimm's sacrifice fly, but Libertyville erupted in the fifth.

The Wildcats loaded the bases with no one out, and Lucas Guarnaccio followed with a 2-run double, knocking out Sequoits starter Chris Terzic.

Terzic struck out five in his 4-plus innings, but also walked six.

"He pitched really well, staying ahead in the count early on," Antioch assistant coach Karl Richter said. "He just kind of ran out of gas in the fifth."

Mike Seefeldt greeted reliever Zack Moser with a 3-run homer, and by the time the inning was over, Libertyville had sent 13 batters to the plate and scored 7 runs.

Eichmann allowed only 1 earned run and 4 hits, while striking out eight. The first two batters were the only ones he walked. He also went 2-for-4 at the plate.

"He had his split-finger working really well," Schurr said. "He came over at one point and said his split was better than his curveball, and that's never been the case."