St. Charles East offense stays hot
The St. Charles East offensive explosion continued unabated Tuesday afternoon in Aurora.
The Saints' baseball team fell behind host West Aurora early, only to capitalize on all of its opportunities: of the eight St. Charles East batters who walked, six scored; five runners crossed the plate in the top of the seventh alone to secure a 14-7 victory under optimal hitting conditions.
St. Charles East captured its fourth consecutive game to begin the season while handing its former league rival West Aurora an equal number of defeats to begin its campaign.
"We have been averaging 13 runs a game," St. Charles East coach Dave Haskins said. "Usually pitching is ahead of hitting this time of the year. I expected us to score some runs today."
Ryan O'Dell staked the Saints to early 2-0 first-inning lead when the left-hander blasted a 2-run shot over the left-center field fence to plate pinch-runner Anthony Scotello.
"There were two outs and you just try to get the run in any way that you can," O'Dell said. "It turned out to be a home run. I think the wind probably helped it a little bit."
West Aurora promptly tied the game in its half of the first and added three more runs in the second to take a 5-2 lead. Omar Fernandez, who collected 3 of the Blackhawks' 10 hits, drove home Chris Richter, who doubled in Richie Renner on a perfect hit-and-run double down the left-field line two batters earlier, in the Blackhawks' first.
Greyson Reider coaxed the ever-dreaded leadoff walk to begin the Blackhawks' 3-run second that Julian Pena and Renner extended with key singles.
But back came St. Charles East in its half of the third; Tony Rallo had the key blow - a bases-loaded double - that fueled the Saints' 3-run equalizer. Fernandez tripled to open the Blackhawks' third and later scored on an infield single by Reider, but the critical moment of the game transpired in the Saints' fifth.
Back-to-back West Aurora fielding errors set the stage, and the Saints were not about to forgo the Blackhawks' charity. Rallo had another twin-RBI double in the Saints' 4-run frame that put St. Charles East up to stay.
"Early on so far, we have beaten ourselves," West Aurora coach John Reeves said. "(Errors) happen at key moments of the game at the wrong time. We just (also) walked too many guys."
Holding a 9-7 cushion after six innings, St. Charles East erupted for a five-spot in its seventh to demolish any hope of a West Aurora comeback. The first six batters reached safely; Tommy Konrad, Ryan Shaffrey, Tom Laudadio and TJ Travis knocked in single runs in consecutive at-bats.
"We are very aggressive," O'Dell said. "We're going to take advantage of the other teams' mistakes. We're going to be aggressive on the base paths."
Robert Wendt (1-0) pitched four innings to earn the victory for the Saints.