Villafane, Larkin calmly deliver victory

Larkin pitcher Miguel Villafane kept his cool and cooled off Jacobs with a complete-game 3-hitter in Algonquin Saturday morning.

Larkin led 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh when Nate Andersen managed a rare hit for the Golden Eagles. Andersen stole second and third with one out, setting the table for either No. 5 hitter Henry Gigeous (.385) or Kevin Hubner (.333) to tie the game.

Gigeous, the Oregon-bound junior, had already bunted for a hit with a runner at third base in the fourth inning. That gutsy play with two outs — signaled by Jacobs coach Erik Kehoe — drove in Connor Conzelman to tie the game 1-1.

However, Kehoe opted to let Gigeous hit away with Andersen at third and one out in the seventh.

“I thought about (the bunt) again in the seventh inning,” Kehoe said. “Obviously, they were aware of what was possibly going on and their pitcher was doing a nice job checking the runner at third base. I didn't want to run into a pitch out. I was hoping we'd find a hole.”

The result instead was a high pop up nicely fielded in foul territory by Larkin third baseman Robbie Rybakowski, who made the catch on the move while battling 30 mph winds. Villafane subsequently induced a line drive off Hubner's bat right at center fielder Trevor Whitehead, who made the catch to seal the 2-1 victory.

“I tried to stay calm, stay composed,” Villafane (2-2) said of his pitch-making during the jam. “Just concentrate and throw strikes and let my defense work.”

The win snapped a 4-game skid by Larkin (9-9), which won for only the third time in 10 games after opening the season 6-2.

“Miguel did a great job,” Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. “He's a grinder. He threw strikes when we needed him to. It's good to get a win and get back to .500. Now it's on to the next (Upstate Eight) conference game.”

Jacobs (6-11) saw its 3-game winning streak end despite a solid performance from senior lefty Joe Ross (0-3), who committed this week to McHenry County College. He went the distance, holding Larkin to 5 hits and striking out 9.

Ross walked just one Larkin hitter, but it was costly. Villafane drew a base on balls to open the seventh, and courtesy runner Austin Royse later scored the go-ahead run on Kyle Newquist's single.

“Never walk the leadoff hitter of an inning because it's going to kill you,” Ross said. “We were on a win streak, so this is a tough loss on a windy day like this. We hit a couple of shots, but we hit it right at them.”

Newquist hit the first pitch of his at-bat for a basehit up the middle.

“(Ross) had been pumping first-pitch fastballs all day” Newquist said, “so you have to jump on it and go.”