Skinner, Palatine hang on at Cary-Grove

Byron Skinner doesn't mind a tough jam. The Palatine senior right-hander found himself in a few of them on a chilly and drizzly Wednesday afternoon at Cary-Grove.

Skinner came away from the first two unscathed in the nonconference baseball game against last year's fourth-place state finisher in Class 4A.

By the time the Trojans finally got to him in the sixth and final inning Palatine (3-1) had enough of a cushion to hold on for an 8-5 victory that ended an inning early because of darkness.

"I love being in those situations and I really feed off that," Skinner said of pitching out of one-out jams with the bases loaded in the second inning and runners at first and third in the fourth. "It may not be a good thing sometimes, but I like facing good hitters who put pressure on myself to throw strikes and get my team back in the dugout."

And Skinner (2-0), who had a 3-hit shutout through 51/3 innings after pitching five no-hit innings in his first start, wanted to get his teammates up to the plate.

Junior shortstop and leadoff man Cody Bobbit's third-inning homer to center field got Palatine's offense rolling as it had 14 hits off three C-G (2-1) pitchers.

"He gets it going and then I stopped it," Skinner said with a laugh of going 0-for-3 in the No. 5 spot.

"I thought their kid pitched very well and when he walked a guy or they made an error we just didn't capitalize," said C-G coach Don Sutherland. "On the other side of the coin our pitchers got the ball up and their guys did a good job of hitting."

The lefty-hitting Bobbit struck out on a low and outside changeup from Tyler Curran his first at-bat but nailed a 2-1 fastball in the same spot over the 380-foot sign for his second homer.

Trey Cannon (2-for-4) lined a double to right and Mike Luschen (3-for-4) followed with a 3-run homer. Dan Haze (3-for-4, 2 RBI) ended Curran's day with a single.

"We had seen him once (in the order) already and we do a great job of communicating in the dugout," Bobbit said. "I knew I had to jump on a fastball after I let one go by in my first at-bat of the game."

Palatine also executed offensively as Kurt Becker's sacrifice set up Joe Campe's RBI single in the fourth and a hit-and-run single by Jim Smearman (2-for-4) led to Kevin Klein's RBI double in the fifth.

A 2-run double by Haze and an RBI triple by Klein in the sixth made it 8-0.

Skinner kept it scoreless with 1 of his 5 strikeouts and a chopper on a 3-2 pitch near the third-base line from leadoff man Eric Chandler to leave the bases loaded in the second. Two called strikeouts ended the Trojans' threat in the fourth.

"I love the competition and I love pitching against good hitters," Skinner said of overcoming 4 walks.

"He's done a much better job of showing some poise and maturity in competitive situations," said Palatine coach Paul Belo. "He's an emotional kid and he tends to play on those emotions."

But two hit batters around an RBI single by Alex Posey and an error led to Becker coming in to replace Skinner. A 2-run double by Chandler, a run-scoring wild pitch, a single by Tyler Lau (2-for-2) and a walk to Chris Waylock brought the tying run to the plate.

Bobbit made a sprawling stop and flip to Campe on Stuart Gaulke's grounder up the middle to start a game-ending double play.