St. Charles East splits with Streamwood
A stranglehold on first place in the Upstate Eight baseball race was at stake Saturday, but things were pretty much left the same after host St. Charles East and Streamwood split a key doubleheader.
And they were same in terms of a key scenario for both squads as they enter the final weeks of regular season play — both are tough to beat when their ace hurler is on the mound.
A potential matchup between those left-handed aces — undefeated Wes Benjamin of St. Charles East and Streamwood’s Josh Harris — never came to pass.
Benjamin improved his mark to 5-0 by throwing a three-hit, complete-game with nine strikeouts in leading the Saints to a convincing 8-2 victory in the opener, while Harris upped his record to 5-1 by holding off the Saints 7-4 for a complete game in the nightcap. For Benjamin, it was his 20th career win.
“Coming into today, we knew we were going to see Wes (Benjamin) in the first game, so we were hoping for a split because we know Wes is lights out,” Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said of his decision to pitch Harris in the second game. “We wanted to live to fight another day.”
Streamwood (15-2, 9-2) will get that chance, thanks to Harris fanning nine batters in the nightcap to cool off St. Charles East (15-5, 11-2), which had won 13 of its last 15 games after the first-game victory. The win also snapped a minor skid for Streamwood, which had suffered its first loss of the season earlier in the week to Batavia.
“It was a weird day with the wind,” Harris said of the nonstop heavy winds with gusts in the 40 mph range. “I thought it would cause some problems on fly balls, but it really didn’t, so it was a good day, but I was getting blown forward, and it threw my balance off a little.”
Harris got all the help he needed when the Sabres put together a four-run, fourth inning to open a 7-2 lead — with only one hit leaving the infield.
After Alex Morrow walked, Harris put down a sacrifice bunt that Saints’ pitcher Dan Ditusa fielded and threw wildly to first base, allowing Morrow to score. Nick Pryor reached on an error before Nate Pearson laced a two-run single to left.
Pearson stole second, went to third on a passed ball, and scored when Ditusa was called for a balk.
“Communication on some of those infield hits was lacking,” said St. Charles East coach Dave Haskins, whose team gave up five errors that led to all of Streamwood’s runs being unearned.
The Saints got most of their production from leadoff hitter Joe Hoscheit, who tagged Harris for a double and two singles, while also reaching on an error.
“That leadoff hitter (Hoscheit), I still don’t know what I can throw to get him out,” Harris said. “But the rest of the lineup, I felt like I could keep them under control.”
Benjamin was able to keep the Sabres under control in the opener in similar fashion, as the only two Streamwood runs were unearned.
“My ball definitely had a lot more movement, I think with the wind moving it more to the left, and I hit my spots today,” said Benjamin, who was inducing ground balls if he was not notching a strikeout.
“I was really proud of the plays that were made behind me and things worked out really well,” Benjamin added. “You notice the wind a little bit, but after a while it all becomes routine and you get used to it.”
If anyone was wondering what the wind would do to a fly ball, they found out early when Hoscheit clobbered a leadoff homer in the first inning that caught the jet stream and sailed over the 345 mark in right-center.
It sparked the Saints to jump all over Sabre starter Blake Hunter with seven runs in the first two innings, with two coming on a double by Luke Rojas.
“I was very pleased with our offensive approach in the first game,” Haskins said. “And with Wes, his ball moves at that downward angle and he’s going to get a lot of ground balls, and today he was jamming kids.
“If we can get up two or three runs with Wes on the mound, we are in good shape.”