Elgin hangs on to beat Larkin
Wins haven’t come easily for the Elgin baseball team this season.
Tuesday was no different, except for the happy ending.
Elgin, which entered the opener of the 3-game crosstown series at rival Larkin in the throes of a 20-game losing streak, allowed 4 runs in the bottom of the seventh and saw Larkin load the bases with two outs for top hitter Trevor Whitehead, a left-hander.
However, Elgin coach David Foerster countered by lifting righty reliever Eric Daly in favor of left-handed reliever Joe Kellenberger, who ended the suspense and sealed a 6-5 victory by inducing a routine groundball to sure-handed senior second baseman Javier Cardenas for the final out.
It was the first victory for Elgin (3-25-1, 3-19-1) since April 12, when the Maroons defeated East Aurora 10-3. The defeat was the 12th straight for Larkin (9-21, 3-19).
“It feels unbelievable,” said Kellenberger, who rallied to run the count full against Whitehead after falling behind 3-1. “It’s been a long time coming.”
“It feels good,” Elgin coach David Foerster said of being on the winning side. “It’s been tough, tough on the kids especially. But we played hard through it. It’s nice to taste a little adversity in a game like this too, especially in that last inning. We didn’t fold the tent. We kept playing. We believed we could win and that belief pulled us through, I guess.”
Kellenberger’s dramatic save notched the victory for hardworking starting pitcher Drew Bloomquist (1-3), who tried to complete the game but was forced to give way with two outs in the seventh. Bloomquist pitched a gem through 6 innings, allowing only 1 run on 4 hits before he ran into trouble.
Whitehead led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a walk and scored on Niko Morado’s one-out sacrifice fly, which pulled Larkin within 6-2. Bloomquist got the second out on a groundball, but the last out proved hardest to get.
Larkin’s Victor Saldana and Kyle Newquist singled consecutively and Drew Shore doubled to left field to score 2 runs. Shore drew the Royals within 6-5 when he scored on a wild pitch from Bloomquist, who then gave up an infield single to Cody Wahl and was relieved by Daly.
Daly took the hill and intentionally walked Jack Eckholm after falling behind 3-0. Pete Lennard’s infield dribbler then loaded the bases for Whitehead, but Kellenberger wiggled out of the jam.
“It was a nice comeback, but we didn’t do enough little things to get the job done,” Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. “Too many walks, a couple of errors, swinging at bad pitches. All of that adds up to a loss.”
Bloomquist extended to 129 pitches in an attempt to gain the victory against the Royals. He struck out 4 and walked 5.
“It’s Larkin,” Bloomquist said. “Every Elgin student or grad knows you want to pull out your best stuff against Larkin. But the most important thing for us is to peak at regional time. I think having Larkin at the end of the season is helping us do that.”
Leadoff hitter Shaiquelle Hayes singled, walked twice and scored 3 runs for Elgin.
“I was just trying to get it done for my team,” Hayes said. “We’ve been battling hard all season. We needed a win.”
The teams resume their series today at Trout Park in Elgin at 7 p.m.