Diebold, Streamwood roll over Dundee-Crown

Although he struck 18 batters out in his first 2 starts, Streamwood pitcher Mike Diebold just couldn't crack the win column.

There was no way he was going to be denied in Friday's game against Dundee-Crown. Diebold struck an amazing 10 batters out in just 5 innings, allowing just 2 hits as the Sabres picked up a 10-0 nonconference victory. Making Diebold's victory even more impressive was his apparent shoulder troubles before he took the mound.

"Before the game, my shoulder wasn't feeling good, but when I was on the mound it was feeling fine," said Diebold, who has 28 strikeouts in his 3 starts. "My curveball was going for strikes."

Dundee-Crown (3-4) batters were struck out two times in every inning. Diebold even caught three different Chargers' batters looking as they were never able to get more than one baserunner in an inning. Sophomore Jake Romano singled and stole second in the top of the fourth, but was the lone runner in scoring position for D-C, as Diebold then struck out Nick Spagnola and catcher Kirk Hanselmann.

"He threw the ball really well and we didn't make too many adjustments," Chargers' coach Jon Sawyer said. "It's been our M.O. all year. In our three wins we went up 5-0; in three of our four losses we went down 5-0."

Streamwood (3-3) broke out of a recent batting slump quite quickly by putting up 5 runs in the first inning. Second baseman Shaw Jordan nailed an RBI triple and third baseman Richie Gorski had an RBI double to highlight the inning.

Dylan Noncek and Josh Harris each added RBI singles and scored runs in the inning. Chargers' pitcher Zach Vodicka (2-1) got in a hole early after walking both Nate Pearson and Aric Thompson to open the game. Both runners scored, with Thompson coming home on 1 of 4 Chargers' errors.

Even with the excessive scoring spree in the first inning, the Sabres' biggest offensive play came from Diebold, who smacked a first-pitch home run to the middle of the adjacent Streamwood football field.

"Coach said, the first fastball you get, lay out of your shoes," Diebold said.

Streamwood added an additional 4 runs in the fourth to secure the slaughter-rule win. Pearson had an RBI single and the Sabres finished with 5 hits in the fourth and 12 overall. The Chargers committed 3 errors in the fourth as well.

"They had a nice approach," Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said. "With the wind blowing out, I said let's just hit for contact. After our last two losses, the bats were our issue. We spent the last three days working on hitting."