Conant trips up Dundee-Crown in 8
Two defensive miscues cost Conant a 4-run lead in the sixth inning at Dundee-Crown Thursday, but the Cougars made up for it at the plate in the eighth.
Nick Blaha’s one-out single up the middle through a drawn-in infield scored Kyle Gizynski with the go-ahead run, and Conant tacked on 4 insurance runs to pull away for a 9-4 victory.
“These kids know how to battle,” Conant coach Jerry Song said. “They’re young, so they’re kind of hungry. I’m really proud of the way these guys came back even though we gave up the lead and pretty much the game. To put up 5 runs in that eighth inning was awesome, just awesome.”
Conant (4-1) was sailing along with a 4-0 lead behind freshman right-hander Anthony Forte, who had allowed only 2 hits and a walk through 5 innings. However, an infield error to open the sixth inning allowed the Chargers’ No. 9 hitter, Garrett Ryan, to reach safely.
Senior Jake Romano followed with a double for Dundee-Crown (2-4-1), but it seemed Forte had helped himself when Ryan Suwanski grounded back to him on the mound with one away. Forte immediately had Ryan caught in a pickle between third and home plate. He ran the runner back to third base, but a late throw allowed Ryan to slide back safely to load the bases.
The mistake proved costly when Ryan scampered home on a wild pitch to trim Conant’s lead to 4-1.
A bases-loaded walk drawn by Tyler Gross made it 4-2. The Cougars then dropped a playable popup in foul territory that could have ended the inning. Left-handed hitter Nick Hathon made Conant pay for the extra out when he blooped a 2-strike single to left field with two outs, scoring Suwanski and Mike Hazelhurst to tie the game 4-4.
“I came up swinging hard,” Hathon said, “but once I got 2 strikes I just wanted to put the ball in play and see what happened.”
Conant catcher Zach Losch extinguished the rally when he gathered a pitch in the dirt and threw out a D-C courtesy runner who hesitated before trying for third base.
The sixth-inning rally took D-C starting pitcher Erik Brewer off the hook momentarily, but the Cougars got to him again in the decisive eighth inning. Gizynski led off with a double and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by cleanup hitter Kerry Hickerson. That set the stage for Blaha, who delivered the go-ahead single on an 0-2 count.
“I was just thinking punch it through,” Blaha said. “I saw the infield was in and I knew they weren’t going to give me anything to hit. He threw me a fastball outside corner, so I just tried to push it through.”
Blaha’s hit chased Brewer (1-1), who allowed 6 runs (4 earned) on 9 hits, walked 1 and struck out 5 in 71⁄3 innings.
“It was definitely a good fight for us to get back in the game, but it just didn’t go our way,” said Brewer, a future University of Chicago pitcher and economics major. “In the last inning they just kind of got to me. They figured me out.”
Conant smacked 4 more singles against reliever Chris Gorman, including a run-scoring hit by Gyzninski in his second at-bat of the inning. The Cougars also benefitted from 2 of D-C’s 5 errors, 4 of which were committed by pitchers.
Conant senior Dan Durr (1-0) earned the win by holding the Chargers to a hit in 2 scoreless relief innings.
Conant leadoff hitter Nick Monelli went 3-for-5 with a double and a run, Gizynski finished 3-for-5 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI and 2 runs, and Blaha went 2-for-4. Conant collected 13 hits.
Miami (Ohio) recruit Jake Romano (2-for-4, run) notched the only multihit game for the Chargers, who dropped their fourth straight ballgame.
“We can’t play 3 innings of a baseball game and expect to win,” said D-C coach Tommy Parisi, a Conant graduate who Song coached as a high school freshman. “We were pretty dead offensively until the end.
“We need to just continue to focus, maybe take a step back and evaluate where we are as a team and a program and move forward,” Parisi said. “There are some guys who have been going in and out at different positions in the springtime as we feel everybody out. I think it’s time to start having permanent players in certain spots. Some players have shown or not shown that they belong on the field going into conference.”