Streamwood, Harris get past Bartlett
Monday's Upstate Eight Conference baseball game between rivals Bartlett and host Streamwood came down to a marquee matchup of a left-handed power pitcher against a left-handed power hitter.
Bartlett trailed 3-2 with two outs in the top of the seventh and had the tying run on first when Greg Partyka (6-foot-3, 235-pounds) stepped to the plate. Partyka entered the game hitting .510 (25-for-49) with 5 home runs and 25 RBI.
On the mound was 6-foot-41/2, 235-pound Josh Harris, one of the state's more highly recruited juniors and one of 10 pitchers the Bradley-bound Partyka homered against last year.
Harris didn't get tricky. He got ahead on the count using fastballs and eventually got Partyka swinging at a high fastball for strike three, sealing a 3-2 Streamwood victory in the opener of a 2-game series.
"I just got a little out of myself," Partyka said of chasing high heat. "I've faced (Harris) every year for the past three years, and he keeps getting better. He made a good pitch. I was just stupid to go after it."
"If he would have beaten me, he would have beaten me, but I just wanted to challenge him," said Harris (3-2), who walked two, struck out eight and allowed 2 runs on 5 hits in 7 innings.
The win was the second in a row for Streamwood (11-6, 5-3). The loss was the ninth straight for Bartlett (6-11, 2-9) despite another solid outing from starting pitcher Mike Tomsovic (0-3). A week after he lost a 1-0 decision to South Elgin, Tomsovic held the Sabres to 2 earned runs on 4 hits in 6 innings. He struck out eight without a walk by supplementing his fastball with curveballs and cutters.
Bartlett took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, when Dave Mutter's groundout scored a runner who had advanced to third base via an error. Streamwood tied the game in its half of the fourth, when Tim Cohen's flyball to right field with two outs was lost in the sun for a run-scoring double.
Tomsovic allowed only 1 hit until the sixth inning, when Richie Gorski's one-out single was followed by Dylan Noncek's tiebreaking double to the left-center field wall.
"Honestly, I was just trying to get on base," Noncek said. "I was fortunate to lift it and split the gap."
Mike Diebold followed with a sawed-off single to center field that gave Streamwood a 3-1 cushion.
The Hawks made it interesting when Alex Raver led off the seventh with an infield single and scored on Tomsovic's bloop single with two outs. That set the stage for the Harris vs. Partyka showdown.
"Unfortunately, we didn't want to leave it to then," Bartlett coach Russ Lorenz said. "We had a couple of opportunities and didn't get them in." Bartlett stranded runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
The teams conclude the series in Bartlett today at 4:30 p.m.