Streamwood stuns SCN from 7 down

It was kind of a wacky day for the Streamwood baseball team.

First, the doubleheader between the Sabres and St. Charles North, was moved to St. Charles because of an unplayable field at Streamwood, which lead to Streamwood being the "home" team on St. Charles' scoreboard.

Then, in the second game of the Upstate Eight Conference doubleheader, Streamwood (10-7-2, 8-3) was on the verge of being slaughter-ruled before rallying for a combined 10 runs in the fifth and sixth innings and pulling off an 11-10 victory.

"We capitalized on some changes they made," Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said. "I thought we were going to coast to the end, he (St. Charles coach Todd Genke) thought they were going to coast to the end, but our guys started hitting and the rest is history."

In the second game, the North Stars were able to score 7 runs with two outs in the top of the fourth inning to build an 8-1 lead behind starter Zach Hirsch. Third baseman Mike Budka's three-run home run that inning seemed to blow the game open in favor of the North Stars (10-7, 5-5).

But after Hirsch retired the Sabres in order in the bottom half of the fourth, Genke pulled his starter because Hirsch was pitching on just three days rest.

"I had to have him on a short leash," Genke said of Hirsch. "We had an eight-run lead and I thought I could take him out and have a couple of the other guys come in and compete and that just didn't happen."

Genke noted that his team has six games to play in the upcoming week.

"He's been our stopper for three years, and I'm not going to overextend him," Genke said.

The first game between the two teams was a little more standard for a baseball game.

Streamwood was able to jump out to a 5-1 lead after the second inning and rolled behind junior starter Mike Diebold for a 7-2 victory. Diebold pitched all 7 innings and allowed just 5 hits while striking out 7.

"It's always a lot easier when you're pitching with a lot of cushion," Diebold said of being staked to the early lead. "You get to settle down and if someone gets on base you don't have to worry about him scoring to tie it up or something. You can just settle down and throw your game."

Diversey said Diebold has pitched well against the North Stars in the past, and that he "has North's number."

"He our No. 1, and he's that for a reason," Diversey said. "He keeps the ball down and away, and he's got good command of all of his pitches."

Shortstop and leadoff hitter Ryan Kiesel was the spark plug for the Sabres in Game 1, going 2-for-2 and drawing 2 walks in addition to scoring 2 runs.

South Elgin 9-7, Elgin 5-5: Elgin is going to win a baseball game one of these days, but Saturday was not the day.

The Maroons took leads of 3-0 in Game 1 and 4-0 in Game 2 of an Upstate Eight doubleheader at South Elgin, but the Storm rallied to win 9-5 and 7-5 to improve to 9-9 overall and 6-5 in league play.

Elgin (0-16, 0-11), which has lost five 1-run games, committed a total of 10 errors, walked 14 and left 24 men on base.

"It needs to come soon," said Elgin senior Tom Roth, who finished the day 6-for-8 with a walk and 4 RBI. "We just really can't take much more of this. We're in pretty much every game. It's just heartbreaking to lose. The ball's gotta fall our way one of these times, right?

The ball did fall Elgin's way in the sixth inning of Game 2, when the score was tied 4-4. With runners on first and third, senior Tyler Loiseau smacked his third line drive of the game. Whereas his first two liners were hit right at infielders, his third fell for a clean hit to center field to score the go-ahead run with two outs.

"My first two at-bats I had two hard line drives, but I really didn't put them in the right spots," Loiseau said. "The last one felt good off the bat. Thank God he didn't come up with that one or you would have seen my crying."

"We left a lot of people on base in that second game, so it was nice to come up with the big hit," Elgin coach David Foerster said. "Too bad it didn't hold up."

South Elgin rallied for 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth to take its first lead of the game. No. 9 hitter Brad Zych drew a walk from reliever Adam Jazwiec and advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Brandon Stevens. Zych took off for third on a wild pitch and scored the tying run on a throwing error by the Elgin catcher.

A walk and a basehit later, Kyle DeRoo delivered a 2-run triple to the base of the center-field wall, giving South Elgin a 7-5 lead.

"We were having a rough game in the beginning, and we slowly fought back," DeRoo said. "I think the emotion got to us in the end and really pulled us through."

Storm reliever Kyle Kinyon (2-0) earned the victory. He entered in the third inning trailing 4-0 and held the Maroons to 1 run on 6 hits in 4 innings.

"Our energy was low and we were taking them for granted," Kinyon said of the slow start. "But Elgin's a scrappy team. We just kept playing our game. We knew sooner or later we were going to break through."

Jake Toppel earned a 1-inning save. After loading the bases, he escaped when Roth lined out to right field to end the game.

In the opener, Drew Buddle knotted the game at 3-3 in the second inning with a two-out, run-scoring double down the right-field line. Chris Ciccone drove in Buddle with a single to center that gave the Storm the lead for good. Senior Brett Huisman (2-2) earned the win.

- Jerry Fitpatrick