St. Charles East blasts South Elgin

It was a great day to be a Saint Thursday afternoon.

Anthony Sciarrino belted a pair of home runs and drove in 5 runs, while Joe Hoscheit smacked a 2-run home run and later added an RBI double to help lift St. Charles East (3-4, 1-1) to a 16-0, 4 1/2-inning Upstate Eight Conference rout of South Elgin (4-2, 1-1) in St. Charles.

After having been held to just 2 runs over their previous 14 innings during 1-run losses to Prairie Ridge (3-2) and Neuqua Valley (1-0) earlier in the week, the Saints unloaded on Storm pitching for 15 base hits — as all 9 starters in the batting order recorded at least 1 hit.

“We certainly hit the ball well and got results today,” said Saints coach Len Asquini. “We were right on the ball today for whatever reasons they were. But it was the same kind of (plate) approach that we’ve had. It just worked for us today.”

Hoscheit put the Saints on the board when he lashed a vicious liner over the “green monster” in straightaway center for a 2-0 lead.

Johnny Hondlik singled, Brian Sobieski doubled, and 1 out later, Nick Huskisson’s hard-hit ball caromed off the leg of South Elgin starting pitcher Chris Bingham, sending Hondlik home with the Saints’ third run.

After the Storm failed to catch a pop fly between home plate and pitcher’s mound, allowing another run to score, Sciarrino took Bingham’s first offering over the left-field fence. The junior outfielder’s 3-run home run put the Saints ahead 7-0 after 1 inning.

St. Charles East sent 13 batters to the plate during a 9-run third that included RBI hits from Hoscheit and Troy DeFilippis, a run-scoring sacrifice fly off the bat of Huskisson, and Sciarrino’s 2-run, opposite-field home run.

Sciarrino had 2 home runs and 5 RBI in his first 2 at-bats — pretty good production for a guy batting in the No. 9 spot.

“It feels good to finally get out of the slump,” said Sciarrino, who was 1-for-7 coming into the game. “I led the team in home runs as a sophomore on the sophomore team last year but these were my first two varsity ones.

“Coach (Mark) Foulkes has been working with me and changed my batting stance a little bit,” added Sciarrino. “He changed where my hands go.”

The beneficiary from the Saints’ run-scoring barrage was senior southpaw Kyle Manske (2-0), who didn’t need much offensive support.

Manske, who faced just two batters more than the minimum over 5 innings, fired a 1-hit gem with a walk and 6 strikeouts.

“We had four losses in a row there so I knew I had to come out and do a job today and end that (streak),” said Manske, who only threw 60 pitches. “My main focus was keeping on top of my game and not letting down because we were ahead big.”

South Elgin’s lone hit was a 1-out, second-inning double to left-center by David Palmer that barely eluded a diving Sciarrino.

“He kept everything around the zone,” Asquini said of Manske. “He looked out there again. That’s three nice outings for him and we’re very encouraged about that.”

South Elgin coach Jim Kating was less than thrilled with his team’s performance.

“We played horrible, had a lot of errors and lost — end of quote,” said Kating.