Rallo, St. Charles East sweep Batavia
With a strong wind blowing in from right field, St. Charles East baseball coach Dave Haskins didn't think any home runs were going to be hit Saturday afternoon.
He was wrong — happily.
Tony Rallo smacked a game-tying, 2-run home run into the teeth of the wind as part of a 6-run, sixth-inning rally that helped propel the Saints (12-4, 8-1) to a 7-3 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory and doubleheader sweep of visiting Batavia (3-10, 1-8).
“Before the game, I said nothing is leaving this ballpark so we've got to hit line drives and hard grounders,” said Haskins. “He proved me wrong. He squared that up.”
Rallo, who went 5-for-6 for the day with a home run, double, 3 RBI and 2 runs scored, sent a first-pitch fastball over the fence in right-center.
“I didn't think I was going to hit one out either but when I hit it, I knew it had a chance because I hit it pretty good,” said Rallo, who belted 3 home runs this week and now has 7 for the season.
“He's probably the hottest hitter around,” said Haskins. “He's hit three grand slams so far.”
Walks to Johnny Hondlik and Brian Sobieski kept the inning going before Matt Harris laced an RBI single to center, driving in courtesy runner Nathan Sharko with the eventual game-winning run.
“I'd been behind in the count all day and got down 1-2,” said Harris. “I felt something off-speed was coming and it did. I just got the barrel on it and put it into center.”
An RBI single from Henri Desrosiers and 2-run double by Ryan Shaffrey, who went 5-for-6 on the afternoon, added a little insurance for the Saints, who have won 9 of their last 10 games.
“That was very impressive,” said Haskins. “We did a lot of damage with two outs.”
Held to just 4 runs over a 37-inning span dating back to April 14, the Bulldogs finally got their offense going with a 3-run outburst in the top of the sixth.
Danny Seiton's RBI single tied the game at 1-1 before Joe Sortino's infield single sent Andrew Scaccia scurrying home to put the Bulldogs on top 2-1. An infield error led to Batavia's third run of the frame.
“We really haven't broken out of anything for a couple of weeks,” said Batavia coach Matt Holm.
Hondlik picked up the win in relief of senior Dan Ditusa, who struck out 9 and walked 3 in 5 2/3 innings. Nick Pappas suffered the loss for the Bulldogs.
“Things got bad for Pappy there but our pitching has been excellent for the last week,” said Holm. “Our goal is to score a run an inning and to hold them (opponents) to four runs or less.
“We've been keeping the runs down but we're just not scoring ourselves.”
The Saints won the opener 5-1 behind another strong outing from senior left-hander Wes Benjamin (4-0), who limited the Bulldogs to 5 hits.
“He's just having a great year for us,” Haskins said of his team's ace.
Batavia touched Benjamin for a first-inning run, as Steven Patterson led off the game with a single, advanced to third on Braden Hrack's double, and scored on Seiton's groundout.
St. Charles East tied it in the third when Luke Rojas was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and then took the lead for good an inning later when Rallo scored on a wild pitch. An RBI single by Rojas and Hondlik's RBI double highlighted the Saints' 2-run fifth.