Larkin battles past Streamwood

For 42/3 innings Thursday, the Larkin baseball team barely touched Streamwood pitcher Mike Diebold.

Diebold struck out eight and allowed one hit in the first 16 batters he faced. Then Larkin got the bats going.

Seven of the next eight batters had hits, leading to six runs, as the third-seeded Royals advanced to the Class 4A Larkin regional final with a 6-2 victory over the Sabres.

"We just told everyone to watch for a first-pitch fastball, and that's what we did," said Larkin senior Justin Kalusa, whose home run in the sixth was the eventual game-winner. "He threw me a curveball for my home run, which was all right."

The Royals (20-16) will play No. 4 Dundee-Crown (8-23) at 10 a.m. Saturday for the regional championship. The teams played each other the first two games of the season with Larkin winning both.

"It feels like that was five years ago," Royals coach Matt Esterino said. "We beat them twice. It means absolutely nothing."

Larkin would like to see innings such as Thursday's fifth and sixth against the Chargers. After Diebold struck out the first two batters of the top of the fifth, Alex Wahl singled to left. Shane Glasgow followed with another single. Leadoff man Reid Ellis, who struck out in each of his first two at-bats, doubled to center field, driving in two runs to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.

Kalusa led off the sixth with a home run to center. Three consecutive singles by Jon Meidel, Joe Stace and Carlos Rojo brought in a run. Luc Geier helped himself by squeezing in Stace. Glasgow, who went 3-for-3, drove in Rojo with single as Larkin took a 6-1 lead.

"We finally broke through. I think maybe we were pressing a little bit," Esterino said. "You have to give Diebold some credit. He was blowing it by us."

Diebold went 6 innings, allowing 9 hits and 6 runs. The junior right-hander walked one and struck out nine.

Geier (7-2) earned the victory, throwing a complete-game five-hitter. He allowed runs in the third on a run-scoring groundout by Shawn Jordan and in the seventh on a run-scoring infield single by Diebold. Geier struck out three and walked two.

"The cutter had a lot of movement on it today," Geier said. "I was throwing hitters off with that. I was throwing that a lot more than my fastball. I really couldn't spot that today."

Ryan Kiesel and Diebold each had two hits, but the Sabres' 2 through 6 hitters went 1-for-14.

"I don't think our approach at the plate today were as good as they have been," Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said. "But you can't rewind and redo it. You just have to move forward and try to get better."