Pats go small, stand tall against Rolling Meadows
Stevenson won a baseball game with its version of "small ball" Saturday.
Start with starting pitcher Matt Robin.
Listed at 5 feet 10 and 165 pounds, the Patriots' left-hander appears to throw harder than his frame would suggest. Robin used a heavy fastball and good breaking ball to ring up 14 strikeouts in a complete-game effort against a good-hitting Rolling Meadows team, as host Stevenson prevailed 4-3 thanks to a run in the bottom of the seventh.
"He hides the ball well," Patriots coach Paul Mazzuca said of the Ohio University-bound Robin, who throws in the mid-80s. "It gets up on you (quickly)."
The nonconference game, which featured a 50-minute rain delay, ended with another one of Stevenson's sub-6-footers delivering heroics. Bill Dorn's perfectly placed suicide squeeze off reliever Pat Conlin scored speedy Jamal Donaldson with none out in the seventh, giving Stevenson (14-2) its third straight win after a loss to Libertyville earlier in the week.
It was the second time this season that the 5-7, 135-pound Dorn successfully dropped a suicide-squeeze bunt to send the Patriots to a Saturday victory. The first time was in a 4-1, 10-inning outcome at Naperville Central exactly two weeks earlier.
"So I kind of expected (to get the squeeze sign) after (Donaldson's) steal of third because I can handle the bat well, and I think Coach knows that too," said Dorn, who was 3-for-3 with 3 stolen bases, 2 runs scored and the game-winning RBI.
"He can handle the bat well and we had good speed at third," said Mazzuca, who had Donaldson pinch-run at second base for Kory Cutler, who had led off the inning with an infield single. "I thought it would work as long as (Dorn) could get it down and they didn't pitch out."
The Patriots' rally spoiled a strong effort by Meadows starting pitcher Owen Stiff, as well as the Mustangs' bid to send the game to extra innings after they scored a run in the top of the inning to pull even.
In maybe his best outing of the season, Stiff pitched 6 innings of 6-hit ball with 6 strikeouts. One of the 3 runs he allowed was unearned.
"He battled and really kept us in the game," Meadows coach Jim Lindeman said. "He can pitch like that. He has the ability to pitch like that. Early on this season he's struggled, but hopefully he's overcome that and can pitch like this the rest of the season."
Rolling Meadows (9-8) touched Robin for a pair of runs in the first on an RBI double by Ted Metzger (3-for-4) and a run-scoring single by Jon Carlson (2-for-3). But Stevenson tied it in the third on back-to-back RBI doubles by Joe McWeeney (2-for-3) and Kyle Ruchim.
After Meadows batted in the fourth, thunder and rain put the game on hold. When action resumed, Robin started piling up the strikeouts. He fanned two in the fifth, then struck out the side in both the sixth and seventh.
"The last couple of innings I felt I was throwing harder," said Robin (4-0), who had a 15-strikeout game against Lake Forest last year. "It was just the rush and the intensity, and it was a (close) ballgame."
Robin escaped the sixth unscathed thanks to a strikeout with the bases loaded. Meadows scored the tying run in the seventh with two out when Robin uncorked a wild pitch on ball four to Carlson, scoring Ben Kamperschroer. But Meadows left two more stranded.
The Mustangs had just 5 hits - all by Metzger and Carlson.
"I was just pumped up and wanted to win this game," Robin said. "Some of the kids on their team are pretty good hitters. I just wanted to get all my pitched over the plate and get outs, whether they were on strikeouts or flyouts."
"This was a real a good Saturday game for us," Lindeman said. "A lot of times this season for Saturday games we haven't been enthused or energized. I was pleased with how we battled against a tough Stevenson team. We faced this pitcher last year. He's a tough kid, a tough pitcher. I thought we put some good swings on him."