Batavia builds momentum
Batavia put itself into the thick of the Western Sun race this week with three straight wins over Sycamore, capped by a 10-0 shutout on Thursday.
Earlier in the series, the Bulldogs won a 9-inning, 7-6 game on Tuesday. Coach Matt Holm said senior Kevin Flinn has settled into his relief role nicely, retiring the final five hitters for the win after Michael Rutas worked the first 7 1/3 innings.
Sophomore Anthony Carby started the winning rally with a double, took third on a ground out and scored on senior Nick Leonard's RBI single threw a drawn-in infield.
Tim Schofield went 3-for-4, walked and scored 2 runs while Danny Seiton went 3-for-3 with a double, triple and 2 intentional walks.
Flinn again came through in his relief role with a save pitching the final 2 innings of a 4-2 win Wednesday. Matt Taylor started and improved to 3-0.
Both pitchers were the recipient of error-free defense behind them.
"We have really cut down the number of base runners we are giving our opponents," Holm said. "Hits are one thing, but you can't field walks, and our defense, particularly our left side is starting to play very solid ball."
Schofield again got the offense going when he singled and scored in the first. Seiton led off the third inning with a triple and scored. Jay Clark finished the scoring after a double in the same inning.
Promotion: After hitting .480 at the sophomore level, Batavia brought Nick Pappas up to DH against Sycamore and he responded by going 4 for 8 in the series.
Saving on gas: Count St. Charles North coach Todd Genke as another who is looking forward to Geneva and Batavia joining the Upstate Eight Conference next season.
Why?
"We love the 10-minute bus ride," Genke said, smiling.
Genke was joking - though we're sure everyone involved will appreciate less time wasted fighting traffic.
"I think it will be great," Genke said. "Getting Geneva and Batavia involved will be nice. They are coming to a power conference in baseball and we are looking forward to playing them."
Sophomore stars: We ran our area baseball leaders for the first time this week. While you'll see the leaders full of veterans like senior standouts Alex Sroka at Geneva, Ryan Richardson at St. Charles North and Schofield at Batavia, there were two fresh faces who topped the batting leaders.
St. Charles North sophomore second baseman John Brodner is off to a torrid start with 22 hits in his first 45 at-bats for a .489 average.
That trailed only one player, another sophomore, Batavia shortstop Danny Seiton. Seiton's 22 hits in 43 at-bats left him at .512 to start his varsity career.
And on the mound: Judging by the numbers, the warm spring we've enjoyed seems to be sitting well with the hitters.
Only four pitchers among the teams who reported their statistics and had met our minimum innings pitched requirements, Aurora Christian sophomore Bobby Kutzendorf, St. Charles North's Jared Shurtleff, Marmion's Tim Tarter and Geneva's Riley Perry were the only hurlers with an ERA under 3.00.
Looking ahead: We've got one more week to go before rivalry week takes center stage. Over a three-day stretch from Tuesday, May 4 to Thursday, May 6, St. Charles East and St. Charles North play each other three times, and on the same three days Batavia and Geneva square off.
And it's not just the normal bragging rights that will be on the line. Both St. Charles schools are 6-2 in the Upstate Eight having already played -- and split with -- tradition conference powers Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley.
A similar situation exists in the Western Sun where both Batavia and Geneva own 7-2 conference records. The Vikings play Rochelle this week while Batavia readies itself for a key series against Kaneland.