South Elgin, Streamwood split UEC twinbill
Bestowing the title of best baseball team in Elgin Area School District U-46 will have to wait until Tuesday after rivals Streamwood and South Elgin split an Upstate Eight Conference doubleheader in South Elgin Saturday.
In the opener, Streamwood rallied from a 2-0 deficit with a 3-run sixth inning to upend the Storm 3-2. South Elgin responded by clobbering the Sabres 13-3 in five innings in Game 2.
South Elgin (17-7, 12-6) and Streamwood (17-7 11-7) will conclude their 3-game series Tuesday in Streamwood.
"In a 3-game series, we always like to win 2 out of 3," South Elgin junior Nathan Garris said. "We had to get that second one."
Game 1 was a tense pitching duel between Streamwood junior Blake Hunter (6-1) and South Elgin senior Sam Jordt (3-3), both right-handers.
Hunter had allowed only 1 hit until the Storm broke through in the bottom of the fifth for 2 runs on 3 hits and an error. Senior Ryan Hicks drove in the first run with an opposite-field single to score Garris, and Hicks eventually scored on a two-out error.
The Sabres answered right away with 3 runs in the top of the sixth, courtesy of three straight two-out hits against Jordt. Senior Mike Diebold doubled home the first run, junior Tim Cohen's double scored Diebold to tie the game and junior Nick Pryor singled to left field to knock in what proved to be the game-winning run.
"I've been hitting with two outs a lot this season," Pryor said. "It's a tough thing to do. You have to change your approach a lot. At that point of the game, you have to shorten up your swing."
Hunter walked Anthony Keaty with two outs in the seventh, but he induced a groundball to preserve the win. Hunter allowed 1 earned run on 6 hits with 6 strikeouts, a walk and a hit batsman in a 103-pitch effort. "The cold weather helped me," Hunter said. "I'm not bothered by the cold, but the hitters were, obviously."
Streamwood jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning of Game 2 on a run-scoring single by Richie Gorski and a solo home run from Diebold against Nathan Halas (3-0). However, the Storm roared back with a 4-run first inning against Sabres starting pitcher Josh Harris (3-4), helped by 2 of Streamwood's 5 errors.
The Storm tacked on single runs in the second and third innings before erupting for 7 runs in the fourth, a rally keyed by 2-run doubles from Garris and Keaty.
Halas held the Sabres to 6 hits in 5 innings and struck out four.
"With the wind blowing out to right field, I tried to make my adjustments, jam them inside and hit with them with some off-speed," Halas said. "That got me a couple of double-play balls, a couple of flyouts and we just took care of it."