Streamwood nails down 1st regional title
Nate Pearson ran to first base with his right arm raised. Edgar Saldivar slid across the plate and then jumped higher than he ever had.
Streamwood finally won a baseball regional championship.
Pearson drove in the pinch-running Saldivar from second with a base hit down the third-base line in the bottom of the 11th inning Saturday to give the Sabres a 5-4 victory over South Elgin in the Class 4A Hoffman Estates regional title game.
“It’s hard to put into words,” said Pearson, a junior. “We made history. It’s crazy.”
The Sabres (28-6) will take on Rockford Boylan on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the DeKalb sectional semifinals. Dundee-Crown and Cary-Grove meet in the Thursday semifinal and the winners return next Saturday for the sectional title and a trip to the June 6 supersectional at River Hawks Stadium in Rockford.
Streamwood nearly won a regional championship last season, but South Elgin rallied from a 10-run deficit to beat the Sabres.
On Saturday, the top-seeded Sabres (28-6) jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings. Josh Harris, who also started on the mound but left after 6⅓ innings, hit a solo home run in the second for a 1-0 lead. Brandon Larkin-Guilfoyle came to the plate in the third with the bases loaded and cleared them with a double to left field for a 4-0 lead.
The second-seeded Storm (24-10) rallied again. Kenny Lowden drove in two with a bloop single to right field and scored on a Robbie Green single in the fourth to cut the deficit to 4-3. In the seventh, Harris got the first out before giving up a single to Green, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. Green scored to tie the game at 4-4 on Nathan Garris’ single to right, chasing Harris. Dalton Lundeen, who pitched a complete game Thursday, came in and got the next two batters.
“I can speak volumes on the character of the kids, never giving up, the intensity and wanting it,” Storm coach Jim Kating said. “It’s a tribute to the dedication of what they want to do.”
The Storm threatened in the top of the ninth when John Menken walked with one out and stole second. He advanced to third on a wild pitch. Lundeen struck out Green for the second out before being taken out for junior Dominick Tatone. Tatone then struck out Garris to get out of the inning.
“Having that guy on third, coming in like that, was probably the scariest batter of my life,” Tatone said.
Tatone (4-0) easily got out of the 10th and 11th innings. The right-hander allowed one hit and struck out two in 2⅓ innings.
In the bottom of the 11th, South Elgin reliever Andrew Perry (3-2) hit Bobby Post with one out. Salvidar pinch ran for Post. Nick Pryor sacrificed Salvidar to second. Pearson, the Sabres’ leadoff hitter, hit a groundball down the third-base line. Garris dove, but the ball bounced over his glove and into left field. Salvidar scored easily and the celebration began.
“In the postseason it takes a team effort,” Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said. “Today it showed.”