Streamwood earns UEC split with Larkin

Streamwood junior Josh Harris believed his teammates would score some runs Friday.

The left-handed pitcher allowed a run in the top of the first inning to Larkin, then held the Royals to just one more the rest of the way as the Sabres earned a split of the Upstate Eight Conference baseball series with a 5-2 victory in Streamwood.

"I knew our guys would come around eventually," Harris said. "I was just going out there and gutting it out until we got a couple of runs. Once that was happened, everything worked out."

Harris (1-1) struck out a career-high 12, including two in every inning except the first and seventh, in the complete-game effort. He allowed 8 hits and walked two.

"I was trying to keep them off balance," Harris said. "I saw they could hit (Thursday during a 10-7 Larkin victory). They're not a bad team at all."

The Sabres (5-4, 1-1) finally got Harris some offensive help in the fifth. Shawn Jordan led off the inning with a home run on a 1-0 pitch from Larkin sophomore Drew Shore (0-2). Blake Hunter followed with an infield single off Shore's glove. Pinch-runner Zach Bucher scored on a wild pitch to give Streamwood the lead. Pat Manning, who walked after Hunter's single, come home on a Nick Pryor sacrifice fly as the Sabres took a 3-1 lead.

"Shawn Jordan has comes through in other games for us. He is, I don't want to say a streaky hitter, but he's coming alive," Sabres coach Steve Diversey said. "I know he is turning into a good senior leader."

Streamwood added a couple of runs in the sixth. Richie Gorski tripled and scored on a fielder's choice. Jordan, who hit the fielder's choice, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on another wild pitch.

Lee Jackson led off the game with a double down the third-base line for the Royals (2-7-1, 1-1). He would score on an RBI single to left from Scott Harm two batters later. Larkin tried to rally in the seventh. Trevor Whitehead walked to open the inning. He later scored an on error to cut the deficit to 5-2. The Royals had the tying run at the plate with one out, but Harris got two groundball outs to end the game.

Larkin's 1 through 3 hitters went 6-for-12 as Jackson, Reid Ellis and Harm each had 2 hits. But the Royals' 4 through 9 hitters were 2-for-18 with 11 strikeouts.

"I liked our approach for most of the game," Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. "A couple of at-bats we let get away from us. But we were right there at the end."

Shore allowed 5 runs - all earned - on 6 hits. He walked four and struck out three.