Advice pays for Milligan, Hersey

Some last-second advice was not ignored by Hersey second baseman and leadoff man David Milligan.

Milligan came up with runners at second and third and one out in the bottom of the fifth inning of a tied Mid-Suburban East baseball game Monday afternoon. After Elk Grove brought its infield in, Hersey assistant coach Kevin Kelley shouted from the dugout to Milligan to take the ball up the middle.

Milligan grounded the next pitch into center field for a 2-run single. Mike Danielak took care of the rest in a 3-hitter with 11 strikeouts and Hersey took sole possession of first place in the East with a 5-2 victory.

“The coaches always do a good job of telling us to hit the ball up the middle,” Milligan said. “With the infield in like that, all I wanted to do was get a nice little hit up the middle because good things happen.”

Such as Hersey (17-4, 7-3) winning its fifth straight game and taking a half-game lead on Prospect (9-14, 6-3), which had its game at Wheeling postponed to 4:30 p.m. today. Rolling Meadows (14-10, 6-4) dropped a game back with an 8-4 loss to Buffalo Grove.

But it wasn’t easy as singles by Illinois State-bound Jack Czeszewski helped Elk Grove (12-11, 4-6) score first and take a 2-1 lead in the fifth. And the only Hersey baserunner through 3 1-3 innings came on a wild throw after Dan Guido got a dropped third strike.

“Their pitcher was in control and they were making plays early on,” said Hersey coach Bob Huber of his concern about the way the game was going.

It took just 6 pitches for that to change in the fifth. Trevor Haas singled, Erik Stoltzner sacrificed and Josh Koutnik was hit by a pitch.

Danielak grounded a tying single past first base and pinch runner Nick Heeren raced to third. Courtesy runner Brian Tansor stole second and Milligan came through on an 0-1 pitch.

“The situational stuff, you can practice it all you want,” Huber said. “But unless you transfer it over in a game — you’ve got to hit the ball up the middle.”

Tyler Perkowitz used his bat and legs for Hersey’s first and last runs after singles. He stole 2 bases and scored on a throwing error in the fourth and came around on Sean Reszotko’s sacrifice, a wild pitch and a passed ball in the sixth.

That was more than enough for Danielak (6-1) as the Dartmouth-bound right-hander used a fastball, cut fastball and curve to throw 61 of his 89 pitches for strikes. He retired the last eight hitters after Czeszewski’s RBI single to center put Elk Grove up 2-1 in the fifth.

“I didn’t have great command the first couple of innings but I found it later,” Danielak said. “I just knew the offense would have my back and I knew I had to prevent big innings. I thought I did that pretty well today.”

And that’s been the trouble in a six-game losing streak for Elk Grove, which got a run in the first on two Czeszewski steals and Luc Dimaso’s suicide squeeze bunt.

“The big inning has hurt us and today it hurt us,” said Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna. “Once you give that kid (Danielak) a lead, it puts your back up against the wall.”