South Elgin graduates into sectional
South Elgin senior Jake Buhman said he wasn’t worried about missing his 2 p.m. high school graduation ceremony if it came to that, even when Saturday morning’s Class 4A Larkin regional championship game against Elgin went to extra innings around noon.
“I told my parents (Friday) night that everybody graduates, well, almost everybody,” Buhman said, “but not everybody gets a chance to win a regional championship.”
Buhman’s walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth made certain he and his senior teammates did both.
With Ryan Ford at second base after a single and a sacrifice bunt by David Palmer, Buhman swatted an 0-2 curveball from reliever Alex Doty for an opposite-field single to left. Ford scored easily to clinch a 4-3 victory and the second regional title in three years for South Elgin (20-12).
The red-jerseyed Storm players charged from their dugout once Ford crossed the plate, a frenetic celebration that culminated in a dogpile atop Buhman near first base.
“This is what makes this sport so special,” Buhman said moments later. “This is why we play the game. This is the best moment of my life so far.”
It marks the second straight season South Elgin played a regional title game decided in extra innings. The Storm lost last year to Streamwood, 5-4 in 11 innings.
“We wanted it this year,” said South Elgin starting pitcher Chris Bingham, who went 6 innings and got a no-decision.
South Elgin advances to a McHenry sectional semifinal against Hononegah on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Hononegah defeated Boylan 5-3 to win the Harlem regional title Saturday.
The top-seeded Storm needed Buhman’s heroics to overcome No. 4 Elgin (13-24), which rallied from a 3-0 deficit with 2 runs in the fifth inning and the tying run in the sixth.
“That’s the kind of kids we have,” Elgin coach David Foerster said. “We battled all the way through. There’s no quit in these guys. I’m proud of the group.”
South Elgin jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning with an unearned run against Elgin starter Eric Daly, who struck out 4, walked 1, allowed 5 hits and 3 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings.
The Storm scored twice more in the fourth inning. Andrew Weedman singled and advanced to third base on two groundouts, and Bingham drove him in with a single to make it 2-0.
After Michael Murphy walked, Nevan Jeske hit a flyball to left-center field that dropped when Elgin’s outfielders collided, allowing another run to score.
The Maroons got back in the game in the fifth. With the bases loaded and one out, Nick Turner’s groundball to second base scored Ryan Sitter with Elgin’s first run. Andrew Higdon then singled home Jake Buttell, but right fielder Weedman fired the ball to the plate in time to nail Kiko Mari and preserve the Storm’s lead for the moment.
Undeterred, Elgin tied the game in the sixth when Jake Bartelt’s one-out double to the wall scored Sitter, who opened the inning with a single.
“We scratched and clawed to get the runs back,” Bartelt said. “We weren’t ready to take the loss 3-0. We knew that we could come back.”
Doty and South Elgin reliever Alex Wolfe (3-1) pitched scoreless seventh innings, but the Storm broke through in the bottom of the eighth.
“Elgin put up a (heck) of a fight,” Buhman said. “They’re scrappy, they put the ball in play, they make plays when they need to be made. It was a matter of who could stick it out longer. We just came out on top.
“It’s been an unbelievable experience. This was a heck of a regional, and we’re looking forward to sectionals.”
Elgin finished with a 5-7 record in 1-run ballgames.
“I think we played better than our record,” Foerster said. “It was a fun year. We raised expectations a little bit. Hopefully, we’ll carry it over to next year.
“It was fun to go to the ballpark every day with these kids. They just loved being out there, and they loved each other. It’s so much easier to coach when you’ve got a group that’s really tight together. It was fun in that regard.”