Larkin storms back to upend Elgin
When lightning struck near Trout Park in Elgin — Shazam! — Larkin pitcher Kyle Newquist went from ordinary to extraordinary and secured a 6-5 comeback victory over rival Elgin Tuesday night.
Newquist looked quite human as the opener of the 3-game series began. In the first three innings he allowed 5 runs on 3 hits, walked 5 and a hit a batter. Elgin’s Kiko Mari made him pay with a 3-run double that staked the Maroons to a 5-run lead after an inning.
The Royals drew within 5-4 on Niko Morado’s third-inning grand slam, but the contest was then halted after three innings for an hour due to nearby lightning strikes.
Newquist returned to the mound transformed. Larkin gave him a 6-5 lead with a 2-run fourth inning against Elgin starting pitcher Ryan Sitter, and the 6-foot-4 right-hander did the rest. He retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced after the lightning delay and didn’t allow another hit. The only Elgin runner to reach base was C.J. Edwards on a fourth-inning walk.
“We joked that if lightning and a rain delay is what he needs, we’ll find a way to do that,” Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. “I think it forced him to slow down a little bit.”
The situation in the first inning had gotten so tenuous Larkin reliever Dylan Ganow began warming up in the bullpen.
“I knew I was going all the way,” said Newquist (3-3), a future Southern Illinois football walk-on. “I saw (Ganow) warming up and said to myself, ‘This is my senior year against Elgin at Trout Park, and I’m going all the way.”
Newquist retired the last 10 Maroons he faced in order.
“Give him credit for coming back after the delay like he did,” Elgin coach David Foerster said. “He was sharp and he settled down.
“We played tight for whatever reason. We didn’t look too comfortable out there. That first inning we played with confidence, but we got tight and it affected us.”
The victory improved Larkin to 10-21, 6-17 in the River Division of the Upstate Eight Conference. Elgin slipped to 11-21, 5-18.
Elgin’s 5-run first inning was aided by 2 Larkin errors and 3 free passes by Newquist. The Maroons already led 1-0 when junior Alex Buttell blooped a bases-loaded single to left field for the second run.
Mari then stepped to the plate and drilled a line drive to left. The ball took a bad hop over the charging left fielder’s head and went all the way to the wall. Three runs scored, but Mari was tagged out in a rundown after trying to stretch a double into a triple.
Larkin got back in the game in the fourth inning. Sitter (2-6) walked leadoff man Chris Guzeman, made an error on Austin Royse’s sacrifice bunt and walked Pete Lennard one out later to load the bases for Morado.
The left-handed hitting catcher got under a 1-1 fastball and lofted it 10 feet over the right-field fence for a grand slam, his second home run of the season.
“It was a fastball over the plate, and coach wants me to be aggressive,” Morado said. “I thought it was a popup, but I saw the right fielder drift back and run out of room.”
Larkin wasted no time taking the lead after the lightning delay. Nate Young opened the top of the fourth with a walk and Guzeman followed with a single. Pete Lennard stepped to the plate after Austin Royse’s sacrifice bunt and blooped a single to left field to tie the game 5-5.
With Guzeman at third and Lennard at first, Larkin executed the pickle play to perfection. Lennard purposefully got caught in a rundown between first and second, and Guzeman beat first baseman Nick Turner’s throw home to complete the double steal and give Larkin its 6-5 lead.
“In that situation I just want to distract the pitcher as much as I can,” Lennard said. “I want them to look at me, not the runner (at third).”
Newquist made the lead stand up by notching 3 of his 6 strikeouts in the final 4 innings of his complete-game effort.
“They were hitting the ball, but my defense was making the plays,” Newquist said.
The teams resume the series today at Larkin at 4:30 p.m. The series shifts back to Trout Park for the finale on Thursday at 6 p.m.