St. Charles East comes through in clutch
The St. Charles East baseball team couldn’t get a clutch hit when it needed it Thursday.
Friday was a different story.
The Saints scored 8 runs on 9 hits in the top of the sixth inning to break open a 2-1 game and earn a 10-1 victory over host Bartlett in an Upstate Eight Conference crossover game.
“We got the big hits,” Saints coach Len Aasquini said. “That was the one of our problems (Thursday) in our loss to Waubonsie. We did in that inning and opened it up.”
East led 2-1 heading to the sixth. Nicholas Erickson led off the inning with an infield single. Jordan Hayes bunted to sacrifice Erickson to second, but an error allowed Hayes to reach base. Joe Hoscheit followed with a single to left to load the bases for John Hondlik. The senior doubled down the third-base line, driving in all three runners for a 5-1 lead.
“We got the leadoff runner on and moved the runners over and did a good job of squaring up the ball,” Hondlik said. “Early in the game, we were getting under the ball and getting a lot of pop-ups. When we got on top of the ball and forced them to make some plays, good things happened.”
Two batters later, Tommy Wilson drove in two with a single to left field. Anthony Sciarrino hit a ground-rule double to put runners on second and third. Nathan Sharko singled to drive in a run for a 8-1 lead. Hoscheit then added a two-out, two-run single to make it 10-1.
In the inning, the Saints (6-5, 4-2) had 14 batters go to the plate, 9 hits and 8 runs. Hoscheit and Hondlik each had 2 hits in the inning.
“We just deflated and dropped every fundamental part of the game unfortunately,” Hawks coach Chris Pemberton said.
East grabbed a 2-0 lead on a two-run error on a hard-hit ball by Isaac Nimick that got past Bartlett’s shortstop.
The Hawks (6-9, 2-5) cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third. Robert Smith led off with a double. He went to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
That was all Bartlett could get off East starter Kyle Manske (3-1). The senior left-hander allowed just 5 hits in 6 innings. He struck out 4 and did not walk a batter.
Robert Sandowski (2-1) took the loss. The right-hander went 5 innings, giving up 9 hits and 8 runs, 5 earned. He struck out 3 and also did not walk a batter.