St. Charles E. swipes one from Streamwood

The St. Charles East baseball team stole a game Friday.

The Saints had 8 stolen bases, including stealing home for the game-winning run in the 11th inning, in a 6-4 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over host Streamwood.

"Fortunately at the end it was really nice to see the kids come through and execute," said STC East coach Len Asquini, who tried the same rundown play earlier in the game that did not work. "We did a real nice job of reading that at third."

With two outs in the top of the 11th, Joe Hoscheit was hit by a pitch. Sean Dunne replaced Hoscheit, the catcher, as a courtesy runner. Nick Huskisson grounded to third, but a throwing error allowed Huskisson to reach and Dunne to advance to third.

Before another pitch was thrown, Huskisson took off for second and purposely got into a rundown. After a few throws with Dunne slowly edging down the third-base line, Dunne took off. The throw was off the plate as Dunne scored for a 5-4 lead. Huskisson advanced to second on the throw home. He scored on an infield single from Luke Ludke, who reached base 5 times and had 3 stolen bases, for a 6-4 lead.

"We rushed the throw a little bit and pushed the catcher up the line," said Streamwood assistant coach Jeff Szukala, who was subbing for suspended coach Steve Diversey, who was ejected from Thursday's game. "It's a gimmick play where you're trying to steal a run. He was able to steal a run."

Streamwood (9-18, 5-13) got the first two batters on in the bottom of the 11th. Dalton Lundeen, the Sabres' cleanup hitter, put down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. John Hondlik, who threw 6 innings in relief for the victory, got a strikeout and a groundout to first to end the game.

"(Hondlik) was in some tough situations," Asquini said. "We've got to make big pitches and get big outs, he was able to do that for us."

The teams traded unearned runs in the second. The Saints (15-7, 13-3) took a 2-1 lead on a Huskisson sacrifice fly in the third. Hoscheit, who went 3-for-4, added a two-run double in the fourth for a 4-1 lead.

The Sabres tied the game in the sixth. Andrew Mitchell had a pinch-hit, two-run single and Richie Gorski added an RBI double.

Brent Kiesel was the tough-luck loser for the Sabres. The senior is the normal starting second baseman, but did not start as Szubala knew Kiesel was likely going to have to pitch. Kiesel had to come in after two batters in the third inning. He threw 8 innings, gave up 9 hits and 4 runs, 2 earned. He struck out 6, walked 5 and hit 2.

"He battled every inning," Szubala said. "He kept coming in after every inning and said, 'Coach, I'm not coming out of this game.' Like I told the team, he gave his arm for Streamwood High School today."