Larkin strikes back to top Metea Valley
Larkin’s baseball team nearly let Thursday’s game against Metea Valley get away.
But the Royals are thankful for timely hitting.
Catcher Niko Morado jacked a walk-off single to score Willie Rodriguez in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Royals a 4-3 comeback victory in Elgin.
Led by a supreme pitching effort from Kyle Newquist, the host Royals led for the majority of the Upstate Eight game. That was until a pair of defensive errors gave Metea Valley 2 runs and a 3-2 led in the top of the seventh inning.
“We have a bunch of grinders on our team,” Royals’ coach Matt Esterino said. “We could have easily laid down after we (didn’t make) a couple of plays in the seventh.”
Designated hitter Dylan Ganow responded immediately with lead off single and quickly stole second for Larkin (4-5, 1-1). Nate Young then reached base on an error, with Rodriguez entering the game to run for Young. Rodriguez then went right at Metea Valley by trying to steal second. The attempt to throw him out failed, and in the process Ganow tied the game by crossing the plate. Morado then sent a deep ball to left-center off relief pitcher Max Custer to end the game.
The Mustangs (3-4, 0-2) trailed 2-1 entering the final inning.
Shortstop Kenny Obendorf jump started the inning when he reached base on an error. Newquist (2-0) came back and struck the next batter out.
Metea put a runner on base when Ryan Solomon singled, but again Newquist (7 IP, 11 hits, 3 runs, 1 ER, 5 Ks) responded by striking out Will Doiron.
Then a routine play which looked to end the game gave the Mustangs some life. An error scored Obendorf tying the game and then Tom Bolle drove in Solomon putting Metea up 3-2.
This was the first lead for the Mustangs since going up 1-0 in the top of the second inning on Obendorf’s sacrifice fly.
“The big guys in the middle of the order came up with two outs,” Metea coach Craig Tomczak said. “We hit the ball hard. (But) we had three guys picked off. That’s a run that we gave away.”
Newquist was able to help protect the Royals’ 2-1 lead for the majority of the game by picking off Metea Valley’s runners.
in the third Doiron, who led off the inning with a double, was at third with a huge leadoff. Newquist wasn’t going to let him have that big of a lead.
“He was getting a big lead,” Newquist said. “If he gets that big of a lead, I wasn’t going to let him score.”
Billy Sheeren suffered the loss of the Mustangs despite striking out 10 batters in his 6-plus innings of work. He gave up 3 runs, all earned, on 5 hits.