Montini finds a streak it likes, beats St. Francis
As Montini's baseball team continues to drift from one streak to the next, the Broncos simply hope the right one's going to stick.
The way things look right now, it just might.
The Broncos won their fourth straight game with Tuesday's 8-5 Suburban Christian Conference win over St. Francis in Wheaton.
More important than the streak, though, is that Montini coach Bill Leeberg has a definite sense the team is playing better. Two key reasons are the return from injury by Frank Montalto and a strong pitching performance by Marco Sarno, a reliever at the start of the season who made his first start on Tuesday.
"We got a nice outing from Marco, and we're starting to swing the bats a little bit," Leeberg said. "About two weeks ago we just weren't very good, but we're starting to play some good baseball. We'll see if we can keep it up."
That's been the tricky part. The Broncos (11-10, 7-3) started the season with three wins, then lost six straight, then won four in a row and lost four straight before entering their current winning streak.
Trailing 4-3 going into the top of the sixth inning, the streak appeared in jeopardy. But Montini broke loose for 5 runs including a 2-run single by Montalto and Dave Kelly's second 2-run double of the game.
"It feels real good right now the way we're playing," said Kelly, who went 3-for-4 with 4 RBI. "We're really coming together as a team and just playing a lot better right now."
Montini took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI double by Kevin Hankins, who went 3-for-5, but St. Francis (13-10, 5-5) tied it in the third inning on Mike Pugliese's sacrifice fly.
After Kelly's first 2-run double put the Broncos ahead 3-1 in the top of the fifth, the Spartans answered with 3 runs in the bottom half to take a 4-3 lead. Starting pitcher Eric Stout (3-2) had a 2-run single and Mark Salomon added a run-scoring single.
Montini kept up the pressure the entire game. In fact, the Broncos put their leadoff man on base in every inning.
Ben Smego (3-3) notched the win in relief of Sarno while Jared Jayne closed out the seventh inning to pick up his first save.
"You've got to tip your hat to Montini, they're a good team and found a way to beat us twice," said Spartans coach Rich Janor, whose team lost to Montini 8-6 on Monday. "There were a couple of balls that didn't go our way, but overall you've got to give them credit for playing better."