St. Charles East edges Dundee-Crown
After recently getting his hand slammed in a car door, Luke Rojas’ availability for Monday’s nonconference baseball game with Dundee-Crown was in doubt right up until the first pitch.
Rojas put the pain out of his mind for a few hours and delivered a clutch game-winning, 2-run double in the bottom of the seventh inning to help the Saints rally past the Chargers 5-4 in Carpentersville.
“We didn’t know if he could play (before the game) and here he makes a (defensive) play on his knees, he wears a pitch, and then goes and gets the game-winning RBI,” Saints coach Dave Haskins said of his senior shortstop. “He’s a great young man and I love having him as part of our team.”
Rojas, who also walked and stole a pair of bases, was looking for a pitch from Chargers right-hander Mike Lodi on the outer half of the plate during his final at-bat.
“It was a first-pitch curveball outside,” said Rojas. “Coach (Haskins) was telling me to stay back and go center, right-center so I just went with the pitch.”
Pinch hitter Matt Harris led off the seventh with a single to right before Ryan Shaffrey pushed a bunt single past Lodi to put runners on first and second.
“We had three bullets left, and our bench was still very confident,” said Haskins. “Matt has done a great job twice (as a pinch-hitter). In his first at-bat against Barrington, he got a sacrifice fly for an RBI, and he did an excellent job going ‘oppo’ with the approach today.”
After Lodi fielded Jordan Hayes’ sacrifice bunt attempt and nipped pinch-runner Nathan Sharko at third for the first out, Rojas knocked in both Shaffrey and a fast-charging Hayes with the tying and winning runs.
“It could’ve been bang-bang out or bang-bang safe,” said Haskins of his decision as third-base coach. “He (Jordan) had a good read and Coach (Nick) Matsie told him to get out as far as possible. When I turned and looked, I was like, ‘whoa.’ I’m going to send both of them – win or lose.”
Pitching in front of scouts from the Toronto Blue Jays and Florida Marlins, Saints senior southpaw Wes Benjamin struck out seven and allowed 3 singles in 3 innings on a 60-maximum pitch count.
“He definitely had command of the strike zone — both sides of the plate,” said Haskins.
The Saints (2-0) took a 3-0 lead in the second on Henri Desrosiers’ 2-run single and Jake Sheley’s RBI base hit before the Chargers tied it with 3 unearned runs in the fourth.
Dundee-Crown’s No. 8 and 9 hitters, Corey Volberding and Eric Brewer, combined to finish 4-for-6 with 4 RBI.
Brewer’s two-out, run-scoring single off of eventual winning pitcher Dan Ditusa (2-0) in the sixth gave the Chargers (1-1) their first lead of the game.
“That’s not real surprising for us because those guys have been here for a while,” said Chargers coach Jon Sawyer. “There are some good hitters for us at the bottom of the order.”
St. Charles East will try to extend its winning streak to three when it hosts West Aurora today.
“It was nice to see the fight being down one in the bottom of the seventh,” said Rojas. “It’s good to see early in the season.”