St. Charles E. takes series from Batavia
If momentum in baseball truly is nothing more than the next day’s starting pitcher, then St. Charles East was in good hands heading into the rubber game of its three-game series Tuesday with Batavia.
It was the Bulldogs who should have had momentum on their side after their stunning 5-run rally in the seventh inning to hand St. Charles East a 6-5 loss Saturday.
But the Saints had a stopper up their sleeve in senior Kyle Manske, and the left-hander kept his record perfect with a complete-game 3-1 win over Batavia.
Now 5-0 on the year, Manske has picked up three of his wins following St. Charles East losses — none tougher than the defeat at Batavia.
“That was a bitter loss on Saturday,” Manske said. “That bothered me even. It’s a team loss. We had to come back and show them what we are about.”
In winning two out of three from Batavia, St. Charles East (12-6, 10-3) maintains its lead in the Upstate Conference River Division, though Geneva and St. Charles North are tied in the loss column.
Both Manske and his counterpart Austin Shanahan (2-3) pitched well. Shanahan struck out four and walked one, and the three runs he gave up in the fifth were aided greatly by back-to-back bunt singles.
Manske, meanwhile, allowed 5 hits and 3 walks. He struck out two and needed just 91 pitches.
Batavia (10-8, 8-5) threatened to pull off another comeback but left the bases loaded in the sixth and runners at first and second in the seventh.
“Kyle did a god job in the last inning, stayed strong,” said Saints left fielder Joe Hoscheit, the only hitter on either team with multiple hits.
“That was probably one of the worst losses we’ve had. It was tough and everybody didn’t want to have that feeling again so we came out stronger and didn’t let that happen.”
Batavia scored first in the fourth inning. Luke Horton led off with a single and Billy Zwick bunted him to second before Austin Higgins delivered a two-out single to center — the first earned run Manske has allowed this season.
Troy DeFilippis ignited the Saints’ 3-run fifth with a line drive single to right. Anthony Sciarrino pushed a bunt down the first base line that went for a bunt single, and Nicholas Erickson did the exact same thing as Batavia playing without its regular second baseman Higgins (shoulder injury) failed to execute defensively.
After getting a fly out, Shanahan allowed a game-tying sacrifice fly to deep center by Hoscheit. Johnny Hondlik followed with the game-winning blow, a rocket over center fielder Robbie Bowman’s head to score 2 runs and give the Saints a 3-1 lead.
“We laid down some real nice bunts,” Saints coach Len Asquini said. “Big hit by Johnny. Nice to see the big senior come through.”
Micah Coffey, Batavia’s hero Saturday, drew a two-out walk in the seventh, and Steve Durham reached on an infield error. But with the tying runs on base, Manske induced a grounder that second baseman Jordan Hayes bobbled briefly before throwing to first for the final out.
The Saints also survived a scare in the fifth when Hoscheit and shortstop Erickson collided chasing a bloop hit. Erickson stayed on the ground for several minutes but both players remained in the game.
“We’re happy we won the series against a pretty good team,” Asquini said. “Very pleased. Good sign to bounce back from what happened in that second game on Saturday. It shows a little bit of our fortitude and toughness.”
Batavia coach Matt Holm lamented the lack of timely hitting that helped earn his team a split Saturday. He also hopes to get healthy soon as he wasn’t able to throw Higgins or Nick Pappas (elbow) and could only use one as a DH.
“These guys are very well-coached and have a good pitching staff and they didn’t allow you to square the ball up,” Holm said. “Good clean series, good clean game. If you can’t field a bunt you are going to have a hard time.”