Rowland, Hawks silence Streamwood's bats
The Streamwood baseball team entered Monday's home game hitting .328, but Bartlett pitcher Devin Rowland held the Sabres to 2 hits in 6 innings to lead the Hawks to a 5-1 Upstate Eight Conference victory.
Was it the best performance as a varsity pitcher for Rowland, who improved to 5-1?
"Definitely one of the top couple," said the 5-foot-11, 165-pound senior right hander. "I just felt really good out there. My control was good, and that's really what it comes down to. When all my off-speed pitches are working, I'm going to be pretty effective out there."
Rowland kept Streamwood (10-8-2, 8-4) guessing with his curveball and changeup. He made just one mistake all afternoon - a hittable changeup Brian Brauer crushed for a home run to center field in the sixth inning. The homer was Brauer's area-best 10th of the season.
"He did a great job of keeping us off-balance with the curveball," Brauer said of Rowland. "He was throwing it for a strike all day and mixing in fastballs. I saw one high changeup and jumped on it."
Bartlett (14-8, 8-5) scored the only run it would need in the first inning. Streamwood starting pitcher Tim Martin (1-4) walked leadoff man Alex VanNess, who stole second and scored one out later on Greg Partyka's sharp single.
Rowland made it 2-0 in the third inning when he hit a one-out home run into the wind to left field.
"That was the first home run I've hit since I was 12," Rowland said. "It felt good."
The Hawks scored twice more in the inning with the help of a baseball oddity. VanNess singled before Partyka grounded the ball to Streamwood shortstop Ryan Kiesel. The ball rolled right up Kiesel's glove, slipped between the buttons of his uniform and disappeared into his jersey. Because the ball was ruled to be out of play VanNess was awarded third base, Partyka second.
Mike Mancuso then grounded to shortstop, but a wide throw pulled the first baseman off the bag, scoring VanNess. Courtesy runner Matt Neesan never stopped running as he rounded third base and scored a second run on the play to make it 4-0 Bartlett.
"Coach (Mike) Boe and I were joking - you sit in college in a sports (officiating) class trying to worry about that one question like 'What happens when a ball gets lodged in a uniform? You're never going to use this but...' I guess today was that day."
Partyka hit his fourth home run of the season in the seventh inning to cap the scoring. The victory gave Bartlett a split of the two-game series.
"I think we just were motivated," said Bartlett's Tucker Erickson, who went 3-for-4. "We wanted to come back and beat them. They're a good team. They can hit real well. We played solid difference and we hit."