Storm's bats silence Larkin

Threes were wild for the South Elgin baseball team in a 9-3 victory at Larkin Thursday.

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in their first at-bat, when left-handed-hitting leadoff man Justin Kalusa crushed a solo home run onto McLean Boulevard.

However, the Storm responded with 3 runs off Kalusa in the second inning, 3 in the third and 3 more in the fourth to cruise to the Upstate Eight Conference victory in Elgin.

South Elgin collected 10 of its 12 hits against Kalusa (2-1), who didn't get much help from a defense that committed 4 errors and gave South Elgin more extra outs by misplaying a couple catchable balls into hits.

Meanwhile, Storm pitchers Drew Buddle (31/3 IP, 3ER) and Jake Toppel (32/3 IP, 3 strikeouts) held the Royals in check despite allowing 9 hits and 2 walks.

"Drew didn't have his best stuff, but he battled and gave us 4 innings," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. "Then Mr. Toppel came in and shut the door real well. He stepped up and made some plays defensively (at shortstop) and, obviously, pitching was the big thing. He came in, threw strikes and got a hot team out."

The loss was the second straight for Larkin (10-9, 5-3) on the heels of a five-game winning streak. The victory was the second straight for South Elgin (6-8-1, 3-3-1).

Eight of the nine players in the Storm lineup had at least 1 hit and seven of nine scored a run. No. 9 hitter Brad Zych, who bats right handed, tied the game 1-1 with a run-scoring basehit to right-center field in the second inning and added a 2-run single to right in the third that put his team up 6-1.

"I was just trying to go to the opposite field and get a couple of RBIs in," Zych said.

Kalusa stayed red hot and made it 6-2 in the bottom of the third with another solo shot to right against Buddle. The senior has 10 hits in his last 11 bats over three games.

"I'm feeling pretty good at the plate right now," Kalusa said. "I personally didn't think I pitched that well. I'm pretty mad at myself right now."

Larkin hit the ball hard on several other occasions but couldn't find the holes in South Elgin's defense.

"We hit it right at them and they made the plays," Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. "A couple of the ones we kicked, they made us pay for it. I thought Kalusa actually threw decent. It wasn't his best game, but he kept us in the game.

"The thing you have to give (South Elgin) credit for is that whenever we made an error they made us pay every time."

The District U-46 rivals conclude their two-game series at South Elgin today.