Geneva salvages its day by beating Larkin
After losing to West Chicago 7-3 on Thursday morning, the Geneva baseball team hopped on a bus and salvaged its day with a 9-5 victory at Larkin.
The Vikings (4-2) scored single runs in the first and second innings against Larkin starting pitcher Miguel Villafane and chased him during a 4-run third inning in which the Royals paid for a mental mistake.
After Villafane walked leadoff man Eric Renner and subsequently beaned Jerrod Campbell to end his mound stint, Brian Cornick laid down a sacrifice bunt back to new pitcher Cody Wahl. His high throw pulled the Larkin first baseman off the bag.
Renner alertly kept chugging around third base and scored under the tag after a delayed throw from first.
The Vikings scored another run when an errant pickoff throw to third base by the Larkin catcher sailed into left field, though Royals coach Matt Esterino argued the batter had interfered with the throw.
"Our biggest weakness is that mentally we're not where we need to be," said Esterino, whose team fell to 1-6-1. "Mentally, we have to put it together with the nine guys who are out there."
Geneva No. 9 hitter, Jason Adams, then delivered a run-scoring double for the second straight inning, which put the Vikings ahead 5-1. Adams, who entered the game with 2 hits in 5 games, went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI.
"I just felt good, I guess," Adams said.
"A lot of (coaches) try to hide a guy in the nine spot, but we tell Jason he's like another leadoff hitter," Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. "He came through with a couple of big hits today."
The Vikings capped the 4-run inning with a sacrifice fly to right field by Michael Monaghan.
Larkin managed 1 run on 2 hits against Geneva starting pitcher Dan Trimble, who was relieved after 3 innings by Kyle Bender. The junior, to whom Hahn awarded the victory, allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits over the final 4 innings.
Larkin pulled within 7-3 in the fourth inning on a run-scoring double to the wall in left center by Scott Harm and an RBI single by Cody Wahl. But such hits with men on base were rare for the Royals, who stranded 8 baserunners.
"We would get a couple of hits together, but it seemed like we couldn't get that last hit to close it and score runs," said Harm, who went 2-for-3 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI.
Geneva scored twice more in the seventh to open a 9-3 lead, keyed by Adams' RBI basehit.
"The story of the early season so far is we've been putting ourselves in the hole," Esterino said. "We've been doing a good job fighting back and the kids are staying in the game, but we're digging ourselves holes."
Angel Aguilar made it 9-5 in the bottom of the seventh with a pinch-hit, 2-run double, but Bender retired the next two hitters to finish off the win for Geneva.