Bartlett hangs on to nip Streamwood
The Streamwood baseball team didn’t go quietly, but host Bartlett ended the Sabres’ season just the same Monday.
No. 17 Streamwood rallied for 3 runs in the top of the seventh, courtesy of Illinois recruit Richie Gorski’s 2-run triple and a run-scoring groundout from Valparaiso-bound Dalton Lundeen.
However, with Brandon Larkin-Guilfoyle on first base after a two-out single, Hawks reliever Robert Sadowski induced a groundball to shortstop Ben Grear off the bat of Alex Morrow. Grear’s throw nipped the future Northern Illinois running back at first base to seal a 4-3 victory for Bartlett in Monday’s play-in game of the Class 4A Lake Park regional.
No. 16 Bartlett (17-19) advances to Wednesday’s regional semifinal against No. 1 Geneva (26-7) in Roselle at 4:30 p.m. Geneva defeated Bartlett 4-3 on April 5.
For the second straight season the Hawks will face the top seed in the sectional after winning a play-in game. In 2011, they were no-hit in a regional semifinal by eventual Class 4A state champion Lyons.
“We’re in the same spot as last year,” Bartlett coach Chris Pemberton said. “We have some experience against higher seeds. To win the next game we have to take it to the next level.”
Sadowski’s two-out save made a winner of Bartlett starting pitcher Colin Nowak (7-2), who struck out 11 but was lifted after 115 pitches and his third walk of the game with one out in the seventh.
“I wanted to keep it on the outside part of the plate,” said Nowak, a junior right-hander who limited the Sabres to 6 hits. “They have a lot of pull hitters who can hit the ball hard.”
The Hawks staked Nowak to a 1-0, first-inning lead when cleanup hitter Dan Gallanis singled to left field on a 3-2 pitch from left-handed Streamwood starter Lundeen (5-3). The hit drove in Robert Smith, who led off with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Karrick and stole third base.
The Hawks scored what proved to be 3 necessary insurance runs in the fifth inning. A one-out single by Karrick and back-to-back, two-out walks to Gallanis and Nowak set the stage for Ben Havel. The 6-foot-7 junior laced a high changeup to center field to drive in a pair, and a third runner scored when the ball got past the center fielder for an error.
“One bad pitch and he hit it up the middle,” said Lundeen, who limited Bartlett to 5 hits, struck out 5, walked 4 and hit a batter in his final 6 high school innings.
“We needed more than a 1-run lead,” Havel said. “And they came back, so we needed every run.”
Edgar Saldivar’s one-out single opened Streamwood’s seventh-inning rally. Senior Brent Kiesel then drew a walk, which prompted Pemberton to bring in Sadowski to relieve. The first batter he faced was Gorski, who sliced a 2-run triple the opposite way to the right field corner.
Lundeen then grounded out to first base to drive in Gorski and pull the Sabres within 4-3, but Grear’s assist on a slow roller by Morrow ended the season for Streamwood (10-26) on a bang-bang play.
“It was not the best year,” said Gorski (3-for-4), a key piece of Streamwood’s 2011 Elite Eight team. “Last year was more fun, but I had a fun senior year and that’s what high school baseball is all about.”
The loss ended the tenure of Streamwood coach Steve Diversey, who announced on April 24 he would step down at season’s end. Diversey directed Streamwood to the most successful season in school history in 2011 (30-7), winning the program’s first conference, regional and sectional titles. He finishes his seven-year run as Sabres coach with a record of 95-76-2 (.549).
“I can ride off into the sunset,” Diversey said. “I’m pleased with the way it ended. At least we showed some fight in the seventh inning. That’s what you like to see. It took 36 games to get the fight in the dog, but we got it. There were a lot of positives to take from this for the program to build on.”