Batavia wins again in Coffey's 1st start
The Batavia baseball team has just one loss in the Western Sun on the year and, as if they needed any help, the Bulldogs got Jordan Coffey back in his starting role Tuesday.
Coffey, coming off shoulder surgery this winter, made his first start of the year against conference foe Glenbard South. Coffey was good, going 3-plus innings and allowing just 2 runs but it was junior Kevin Flinn who came in and shut down the Raiders.
Flinn did not allow any runs while recording 7 strikeouts, including a big one to get out of a based-loaded jam in the fourth as the Bulldogs pulled out a 4-2 victory.
"Jordan looked pretty good," said Batavia coach Matt Holm. "To come out and throw strikes and give us four quality innings and to keep the score down on a day where we faced their No. 1 starter, that's good. Then Kevin Flinn came in and did a fantastic job."
"I felt good early," said Coffey. "My first outing back and I was just hoping to find my rhythm and shut them down but I didn't really have my best stuff today, it was a little rough early. My velocity wasn't really there and I was kind of all over the place but we were able to keep the score down and then get some runs. Flinn came in and he was outstanding."
Glenbard South also got a quality start from David Suffern. Suffern (3-4) allowed just 5 hits while going the distance but unfortunately for Glenbard South (16-14, 6-10) three of those hits came during a two-out rally in the bottom of the third that proved to be the difference in the game.
Bulldogs shortstop Tim Schofield laced a single to right and then stole second base. Joe Aguilar followed with a major-league pop-up that got twisted up in the high winds and landed in short center field scoring Schofield.
Batavia left fielder Tim Drish then took a first pitch fastball to deep center that Raiders center fielder Sterling Smith made an unbelievable attempt on. In fact, Smith had it in his glove and appeared to have robbed Drish but Smith collided with the top of the fence and the ball popped out of his glove and over the fence for the go-ahead home run.
"It was in his glove and he got hit right in the throat and it jarred the ball loose," said Glenbard South head coach Mike Riley.
"It's kind of a shame that he had to drop it," said Coffey. "That would have been one of the greatest catches I've ever seen. Luckily for us, he didn't get it and we went ahead there."
After that, the Raiders threatened by putting runners in scoring position with less than two outs in the sixth and seventh inning. But Flinn (3-0) worked his way out of it in the sixth win another big strikeout and Chris Wood came in and bailed out Flinn in the seventh after Matt Behnke and Trace Wanless started off the final inning with singles.
Wood got an infield pop for a fielder's choice and another pop to get the save for Batavia (19-5, 14-1).
"We had a lot of opportunities to score runs today and we didn't come away with anything," said Riley. "We had a lot of different kids have opportunities to come through and no one came through so you give their kid credit for getting those people out and our guys have to take responsibility for not stepping up and hopefully we can do better the next game."