Weedman’s homer propels South Elgin
After the South Elgin baseball fans chanted his name — Weed-man! Weed-man! Weed-man! — first baseman Andrew Weedman stepped to the plate and delivered the biggest hit of the year for the Storm Friday.
Walks gave South Elgin runners at first and second with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning of a 3-3 game. That’s when Weedman blasted the first pitch of the at-bat against Larkin junior starting pitcher Kyle Newquist for a 3-run home run.
The homer was a no-doubter that landed at least 20 feet beyond the 340 sign on the left-field wall. It lifted South Elgin to a 6-3 victory in a Class 4A Hoffman Estates regional semifinal over gutty Larkin, which had rallied for 3-runs in the top of the sixth to knot the score.
“I was just looking for the first pitch to hit,” Weedman said of his second home run the season. “I’ve been struggling lately. I was just looking for something to drive. I pretty much knew right off the bat that it was gone. The ball was carrying out today.”
Newquist (2-6) had thrown first-pitch curveballs to Weedman in each of his two previous at-bats.
“I was actually looking curveball, but he came fastball so I just drove it,” Weedman said. “He was usually getting his first pitch over for a strike.”
South Elgin reliever Andrew Perry (3-1) walked the first 2 Royals he faced in the seventh inning, but he closed out the game with a flyout and back-to-back whiffs.
The win advanced South Elgin (24-9) to the Class 4A Hoffman Estates title game today at 3:30 p.m. The Storm will face Streamwood (27-6) on graduation day for both schools. The Upstate Eight Conference and District U-46 rivals met in a regional title game last season in Carpentersville, a memorable contest in which the Storm rallied from a 12-2, third-inning deficit to win 13-12.
Streamwood returned the favor in the regular season with a 7-6 victory in nine innings on April 12.
Larkin trailed 3-0 in the sixth, but the Royals rallied as leadoff man Trevor Whitehead (2-for-3) singled, and Niko Morado followed by drawing a walk from South Elgin sophomore left-hander Chris Bingham. Senior Victor Saldana then scalded a line-drive basehit to left field, scoring Whitehead to cut the deficit to 3-1.
Bingham responded with a strikeout and a groundout, but a routine grounder that would have ended the inning instead found its way under the mitt of normally dependable shortstop John Menken for a 2-run error, allowing Larkin (11-23) to tie the game 3-3.
“We fought like we usually do and it’s a credit to our kids,” Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. “They battle and that will take them a long way in life. We gave them a couple runs early and they gave us a couple too, but they got the big hit when they needed to. We spotted them a few runs early and couldn’t claw back after they hit that home run. (2-6).”
Larkin loaded the bases with two outs when Perry entered in relief and made an error on a slow roller, but he rebounded by striking out Larkin’s No. 9 hitter to keep the scored tied.
South Elgin took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Menken’s solo shot to straightaway center field and added single runs in the third and the fifth.
“We wanted to come out right out of the gate and put some pressure on them,” Menken said. “We thought if we jumped on them early we’d have a good chance to win.”
The unsung here of the game, according to South Elgin coach Jim Kating, was senior Dillon Gardner. After Dan Heine drew a one-out walk in the sixth, Gardner ran the count full and fouled off pitches until he finally coaxed a two-out walk from Newquist, setting the stage for Weedman.
“Dillon Gardner’s at-bat gave Andrew the opportunity to come up to hit,” Kating said. “He battled to a 3-2 count and scrapped and scrapped and scrapped and worked a walk to give Andrew an opportunity to hit a pitch.”