St. Charles E. knocks out Glenbard E.
Falling behind 2-0 before his team even took its first at-bat wasn’t exactly the start that St. Charles East baseball coach Dave Haskins envisioned before Wednesday’s Class 4A regional semifinal game against Glenbard East.
A few innings later, Haskins felt a whole lot better about the situation after the Saints (26-10) added to their 4-2 lead with a 6-run third en route to a 10-2 triumph over the 15th-seeded Rams in Geneva.
Haskins certainly wasn’t taking any chances early on, as he sent Wes Benjamin to warm up after starting pitcher Dan Ditusa walked Glenbard leadoff man Mike Dexl on 4 pitches.
Five batters later, Haskins pulled Ditusa, who gave up a 2-run home run to left-handed hitter Steve Kinney that put the Rams on top 2-0.
“He wasn’t sharp,” Haskins said of Ditusa, who has been one of the Saints’ most consistent pitchers this season.
St. Charles East, which will face either No. 7 Geneva or No. 9 Lake Park in Saturday’s 10 a.m. regional finals, quickly halved the deficit in the bottom of the first on Johnny Hondlik’s sacrifice fly.
“I always talk about scoring first but it was nice that we split the lead already after one (inning),” said Haskins, “and a one-run ballgame is anyone’s game. I thought we would be OK.”
The Saints were better than OK after putting 3 runs on the board in the second, benefiting from a pair of Glenbard East errors as well as a clutch 2-run double by Luke Rojas.
One of the miscues occurred on Ryan Shaffrey’s sacrifice bunt, as Shaffrey collided with second baseman Pat Walsh at first base, allowing Matt Harris to cross the plate with the tying run.
“It was a nice bunt by Shaffrey to put the pressure on the defense and then we hit the long ball when he had to,” said Haskins.
A pair of sophomores helped spark the Saints’ third-inning assault that was highlighted by Brian Sobieski’s opposite-field, 2-run home run and Hoscheit’s 2-run double.
After Benjamin (9-1) worked a pair of 1-2-3 innings of relief, Hoscheit took the mound with an 8-run run lead to start the fourth.
“I came right off the bases and they told me to warm up,” said Hoscheit. “I threw like three pitches (in the bullpen).”
The right-hander tossed 4 hitless innings of relief, fanning 6 while walking 2. More importantly, he kept Benjamin (25 pitches) from overextending himself.
“Joe came up and pitched four innings for us,” said Haskins. “He kept Dan, Wes and Hondlik ready (for Saturday). I think that was huge. We didn’t have to use our closer, and Dan and Wes will be fine for Saturday.”
St. Charles East’s defense also came up with several web gems, highlighted by Benjamin’s all-in-one-motion leap and throw to first to retire Brian Kohn on a bunt, and third baseman Jordan Hayes’ pick of a high chopper off the bat of Jon Morris in the sixth.
The Rams, who outlasted Batavia 4-3 in 8 innings Monday, finished their season at 12-18.
“We walked seven guys and hit two,” said Rams coach John Walters. “You’re not going to be able to overcome that against a two seed (St. Charles East).
“After the first inning, we didn’t do the things we needed to do to maintain or build to the lead. But I’m really proud of the guys. We didn’t have many wins last year as a program, and this year we won three times as many games as we did the year before.”