Addison Trail goes big with small ball

Addison Trail and Hinsdale South both tried winning with small ball on Tuesday.

Addison Trail’s small ball played just a little bigger.

The Blazers’ run-creation skills led to a 7-1 win in their West Suburban Gold baseball game in Darien, a victory that salvaged the finale of a three-game series against Hinsdale South.

After being held scoreless for the first two innings, Addison Trail (2-3, 1-2) steadily built a lead with a run in each of the next four innings. A 3-run top of the seventh provided more breathing room.

Not that Blazers starting pitcher Greg Schultz (2-0) needed the cushion. He scattered 3 hits and struck out six over 6 innings. Anthony Milazzo closed out the game with a 1-2-3 seventh.

“My teammates did great, they came through when they needed to and got some big two-out hits,” Schultz said. “I just did my best out there and tried to help out my teammates.”

Addison Trail didn’t have a single extra-base hit. The Blazers took advantage of three sacrifice bunts, a bunt for a single, five walks, a hit batter and 5 Hornets errors.

In every inning they scored, the Blazers hit only one ball out of the infield. An Alex Vargas groundout drove in the first run in the third inning, and Stephen Gilliam’s bunt out in the fourth led to another run.

Mike Imperiale singled home Addison Trail’s fifth-inning run while a fielder’s choice from Todd Brocksome made it 4-1 in the sixth.

A bases-loaded walk to Paul Abinante, Cody Mueller’s sacrifice fly and an error broke open the 3-run seventh inning.

Nothing flashy but very effective.

“With the wind blowing in today we just thought, let’s start executing the bunt and manufacture some runs,” said Addison Trail coach Steve Gilliam. “We’ve got guys with good speed and we don’t have a lot of power, so we need to go out there and put the ball in play and put pressure on the defense.”

Hinsdale South (3-3, 2-1) scored its lone run in the fourth inning when Eric Burger’s fielder’s choice scored Nick Sarocco. The Hornets stranded the bases loaded that inning, though, and wound up stranding 11 for the game.

“We just did a better job of making things happen on Saturday,” Hinsdale South coach Kraig Conyer said of his team’s doubleheader sweep of the Blazers. “We took a step back today, but hopefully we can get it going again.”