Jacobs belts its way past Larkin
Jacobs welcomed the new baseball season with a three-gun salute.
Solo home runs by seniors Kevin Olson and Ben Albano and a 2-run shot by Anthony Virgilio highlighted a 6 extra-basehit attack over the first four innings of the Golden Eagles' 7-3 victory at Larkin Thursday.
"We like our lineup top to bottom" said Virgilio, whose fourth-inning line drive over the left-center field fence staked Jacobs to a 7-1 lead. "We're confident we can all go the other way and put the ball in play."
The Jacobs hitters and head coach Eric Sanders credited new hitting coach, Illinois baseball legend Kirby Smith, for a solid approach at the plate. An Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association hall-of-famer, the 75-year-old Smith joined the Jacobs staff in the off-season as hitting coach. His career record in 21 seasons at Barrington was 539-196-7, including 6 state finals appearances and a Class AA state title in 1986.
Smith gave Olson some advice before he stepped to the plate with one out in the top of the first.
"He told me to get up in the box and look for a fastball, and that's what I did" said Olson, who homered on the first pitch he saw. "I was able to get the barrel on it. (Smith) has helped my swing tremendously."
Larkin's hitters were less compact and less successful. Five Jacobs pitchers held the Royals to 2 earned runs on 3 hits, led by 2 scoreless, hitless innings from right-handed starter Greg Leasure.
"I thought in the beginning of the game their swings were much shorter than ours," Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. "Ours were long and kind of loopy. They were getting right to the baseball and hitting shots in the gap. We got a little better toward the end of the game, so we have something to build on."
Larkin starting pitcher Scott Harm fell behind 3-0 in the second inning when Jacobs scored 2 unearned runs. Brett Kale led off with a double and moved to third on an infield error off the bat of Albano. Albano stole second, and Kale scored on the play when the Larkin catcher threw wildly to third base in an attempt to pickoff the lead runner. Senior Nate Andersen singled up the middle with two outs to score Albano.
The Golden Eagles made it 4-0 in the third inning. Senior Josh Kranz tripled with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly by senior Matt Schmidt.
Larkin got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Trevor Whitehead doubled and scored on sophomore Drew Shore's hard-hit single off the second baseman's glove.
"The second and third time around, we got our bats going and started getting runs on the board," Whitehead said.
Jacobs scored for the fourth straight inning when Albano homered to lead off the fourth and Virgilio followed with his 2-run shot.
Larkin scored single runs in the fifth and sixth, but senior reliever Tim Roth retired the Royals in order in the seventh.
Jacobs (1-0) will host Schaumburg today at 4:30 p.m. Larkin (0-1) will try to even its record against visiting Dundee-Crown today at 4:30 p.m.