Palatine overcomes peculiar non-homer at Hoffman
Palatine overcame one of the strangest baseball plays you’re likely to see in an 8-5, 10-inning victory Wednesday over home-standing Hoffman Estates in the Mid-Suburban West.
It was such an odd occurence, in fact, that even long-time prep baseball observers had to admit that they had never seen anything like it.
The Pirates trailed 5-4 with two outs in the top of the sixth when junior Jarrod Juskiewicz appeared to give Palatine a 7-5 lead with a long 3-run home run over the right field fence.
But after the first runner in front of Juskiewicz scored, the second Palatine baserunner approached and then leaped over home plate to celebrate with a teammate.
The infraction was noted by Hoffman Estates coach Todd Meador, who appealed to the umpire — and the Palatine player was ruled out for not touching home.
Since that was the third out, that run didn’t count, nor did Juskiewicz’s run. Juskiewicz also lost the homer and was credited with a double, according to official scoring rules.
So only one run from the 3-run clout actually counted, which meant Palatine only tied the game at 5-5 instead of taking the lead.
“I just happened to notice that he missed the plate, and I pointed it out,” said Meador. “I think he tried to celebrate a little too early.
“That was just one of chances (Palatine) gave us to win the game — but unfortunately, we couldn’t take advantage of any of them.”
The peculiar play didn’t faze Palatine coach Paul Belo in the least.
“We’ve been suffering losses in so many games lately due to strange things happening,” said Belo, “the fact that this happened today didn’t surprise me in the least.”
Luckily for the Pirates, they were able to recover for the victory, in large part due to the exemplary relief work of Jake Walker.
Walker came on in the fifth and tossed 6 shutout innings while striking out four, including a tense bottom of the seventh when the senior got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam by fanning the final two batters.
After teammates Nick Roy and Michael Czarnik stroked run-scoring hits in the top of the 10th, Walker retired the Hawks (8-10, 2-3) in order in the bottom of the frame.
“I thought I was going to come on in relief today,” said Walker, “and I was happy to get the opportunity. I’m just thrilled that I was able to help the team win.”
Zach Hommowun and Brian Cvitkovich each had 2 hits for Hoffman, while the Pirates (7-13, 2-3) knocked out 14 hits on the game including 3 apiece by Dan Riddle, Kurt Becker and Czarnik.
Eric Scheuermann also homered for the visitors.
“Jake Walker did a great job today,” said Belo, “and to be honest, I’m proud of the effort that all of our kids gave.
“The important thing was that they delivered when the opportunities presented themselves, and it’s a credit to them.”