Batavia squeezes its way by Geneva

Batavia finally found a way to counter all Geneva's power.

Three outs away from a sweep to their rival, the Bulldogs bunted their way to 4-3 come-from-behind win Thursday on their home field.

Sophomore Nick Pappas laid down a squeeze just inside the third-base line, and Anthony Carby slid home to beat third baseman Mike Monaghan's throw to the plate. The Bulldogs exploded out of the dugout to mob both players after an improbable win over a team that had just outslugged them 31-14 the previous two days.

"Regardless of record it's always great to beat Geneva," Batavia coach Matt Holm said. "It's a tremendous rivalry. They have great kids on that team. Taking the beating the way we have the last two days it was real important to get (the win)."

Geneva's Alex Sroka and his rising fastball had held Batavia (10-13, 8-7) to 1 single - the only ball hit out of the infield - through six innings. Monaghan's fifth-inning home run, the seventh of the series for Geneva, looked like it was about to hold for a 3-2 win and series sweep for the Vikings, who at 19-6 overall and 12-3 in the Western Sun are tied with DeKalb for the WSC lead.

But Batavia had other ideas. Catcher Jay Clark started the rally with a single up the middle on an 0-2 count. Carby followed with the first of three successful bunts in the inning, and he reached on the play when the throw was late.

Andrew Scaccia laid down another bunt to move the runners to second and third, and Nick Leonard tied the game at 3-3 when he laced a 3-2 pitch into right field.

Holm called for the squeeze on the first pitch to Pappas, a sophomore who was called up halfway through the season and has been serving as the designated hitter.

"I knew I could get it down, we have been working on it in practice," Pappas said. "We played some small ball and pulled it out.

"You never want to get swept, especially against Geneva. Hopefully this will keep us going."

All of Batavia's perfect execution in the seventh inning contrasted some shaky play in the field early. Four Bulldog errors led to an unearned run in the first, with starter Tim Schofield limiting the damage by stranding runners at second and third. Geneva left 9 runners on base.

After the Bulldogs capitalized on two Geneva errors plus an RBI single by Pappas to grab a 2-1 lead in the third, another Batavia infield error allowed the Vikings to tie the game in the fourth. Brad Bernhard doubled with one out, and he came in on a two-out Batavia error.

The only earned run Schofield allowed came in the fifth when Monaghan hit a leadoff homer to left field.

"He hit spots," Holm said. "There was no magic to what he did. He didn't leave anything over the plate."

Schofield, making his first start of the year, pitched a complete game to even his record at 1-1. He only walked one and scattered 9 hits.

"I felt good," Schofield said. "I was mixing it up, keeping them off balance. I was giving it my all every single pitch."

Geneva leadoff hitter Jason Adams, who had hit 4 home runs in his last 3 games, stayed hot going 2-for-4. Sroka also had 2 hits for the Vikings while turning in a strong effort on the mound. He struck out five, walked three and only allowed 4 singles in falling to 2-4.

"I think that was a pretty good outing," Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. "We had a couple chances. Their pitcher pitched well.

"This is always an emotional series. As well as we hit the ball the first two games this started 0-0. Against your rival with their back against the wall looking at sweep possibly, they are going to come out with everything they have."

The games keep getting bigger for Geneva, who now faces co-leader DeKalb for three games next week, starting Tuesday at home.

"That's (Batavia) a good baseball team," Hahn said "Their record might not show it. We still won two out of three, we're still in first place. We're not walking out of here with our heads down."