Geneva answers back against Elgin
The Geneva baseball team practiced what coach Matt Hahn preached Wednesday.
“Coach is always preaching about answering back after the other team scores,” Geneva junior Anthony Bragg said. “I thought we did a good job of answering back in this one.”
After Elgin rallied to tie the game 4-4 with a 4-run third inning, the Vikings put 6 runs on the board in the top of the fifth and tacked on 3 more in the sixth to pull away for a 13-5 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory in Elgin.
“That’s one of the things we preach all the time — regardless of what they score — have an answer,” Hahn said. “Even if it’s only 1 or 2 runs, have an answer because it gets the momentum back. And Elgin was clearly back in the game at that point.”
The victory kept Geneva (16-4, 9-4) one game back in the loss column behind idle St. Charles East (14-6, 12-3) and St. Charles North (15-7, 9-3). The North Stars defeated Batavia 14-7 on Wednesday.
The loss dropped Elgin to 7-17, 3-14. The Maroons committed 5 errors behind sophomore starting pitcher Ryan Sitter (2-4), who allowed 9 runs, only 3 earned. He struck out 4 and walked 3 in 4 innings.
Geneva’s 6-run fifth inning was fueled by 4 hits and 3 Elgin errors. Matt Brandys led off with a single and Matt Williams was safe on an a 2-base outfield error. One out later, Bragg laced a Sitter fastball to the right-center field gap, scoring 2 runs to put Geneva ahead to stay, 6-4.
“I thought it was important to get those runs in,” said Bragg, who went 3-for-5 with 2 doubles, 3 RBI and scored 3 runs. “I thought we did a good job at the start of the inning by getting runners on.”
“The last couple of days he’s started to break out a bit,” Hahn said of Bragg, his No. 6 hitter.
Geneva scored 3 more runs in the inning as the direct result of 2 Elgin infield errors.
“When you don’t play well for the full seven innings and only play in spurts, this is what’s going to happen,” Elgin coach David Foerster said. “Teams are going to jump on you. They took advantage of some things, and we failed to execute a lot of situations defensively. That hasn’t been the case most of the year, but if we want to win games we can’t have these lapses in the field.”
Geneva added 3 runs in the sixth on RBI singles by Bragg and junior Jake Weede and a fielder’s choice groundout by junior Luke Polishak.
The Vikings scored twice in the second inning on RBI groundouts by junior Dan Berendt and Weede, and they extended to a 4-0 lead in the third inning via Matt Williams’ 2-run inside-the-park home run.
With Andy Francis at second base after a single and an errant pick off throw, Williams sent a towering flyball to the fence in straightaway center. The Elgin center fielder got a glove on the ball, but couldn’t hold on as he crashed into the fence. The stunned fielder couldn’t throw the ball to the infield in time, so Williams scored standing up without a throw. The home score book called it a home run.
Elgin got back in the game in the third inning with the Vikings’ help. A Geneva error on a force play at second with the bases loaded allowed the first 2 Elgin runs to score. Gage Teschner’s RBI groundout then pulled the Maroons within 4-3.
Brandys, Geneva’s starting pitcher, was relieved after striking Jake Bartelt in the helmet with a pitch. His replacement, senior Jeff Konrad, allowed 1 inherited run to score on a groundout by Nick Turner, but he was otherwise able to stop the bleeding. Turner (1-0) pitched only 1 innings, but he became the winning pitcher courtesy of the 6-run uprising in the fifth.
Geneva, which won the series opener 3-2 on Tuesday, goes for the 3-game sweep today at 4:30 p.m. Elgin expects to provide a stiffer challenge.
“We have to play with pride and keep playing hard,” Foerster said. “I challenged them a little bit after the game about giving it all throughout the game, even the guys on the bench, making sure we’re all into the game as one. I’m confident we’ll come out and play hard.”