Hampshire squeaks out win over Dundee-Crown
Hampshire catcher Jayson Fleisner turned an "Oh, no!" moment into an "Oh, yeah!" moment with a flick of his wrist on Monday.
Playing a Fox Valley Conference crossover on the synthetic infield at Judson University, Hampshire led Dundee-Crown 1-0 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when a fastball got by Fleisner for a passed ball with the potential tying run on third base.
D-C pinch runner Jason Vincolese bolted for the plate once he saw the ball squirt past a now-adrenalized Fleisner.
"As soon as it got by me I was thinking, 'Man, I've got to make this play,' " Fleisner said. "Fortunately, it came right back to me like it did when that happened in the second inning."
Having learned from a similar play earlier in the game, Fleisner took a few steps toward the back wall and caught it as it caromed back to him off the firm padding. He quickly turned back toward the plate and flicked a throw to Jake Manning, who had rushed from the mound to cover the plate.
Vincolese was called out on a bang-bang play to end the game, and Hampshire (7-2-1, 1-1) celebrated after a tense 1-0 victory over Dundee-Crown (9-5, 3-1).
"I thought it would be a close play at the plate, but (Fleisner) made a perfect throw," Manning said.
"Jake is a really athletic guy so I knew he'd make the play," Fleisner said. "Right guy, right time, right throw."
The thrilling ending sealed one of the most efficient 7-inning victories of the high school season thus far. Manning (4-0) tossed a 64-pitch, 2-hit shutout. The right-handed junior issued a lone walk and struck out a pair.
"I was just pounding the zone with strikes," said Manning, who threw 45 of his 64 pitches for strikes. He greeted 18 of the 24 hitters he faced with first-pitch strikes.
The win against a fellow District 300 program was even more satisfying to Hampshire because it meant the Fox Division team had claimed victory against a large-school Valley Division opponent. Crossovers between FVC Fox and Valley teams count in the league standings.
"It's big to take one from the Valley," Hampshire coach John Sarna said. "Our goal is always to go .500 or better against the Valley Division. I knew we'd be ready to play this one."
The victory improved the Whips to 1-1 in FVC play with a suspended game against Crystal Lake South to be completed on Thursday.
Manning's gem barely outshone that of hard-luck Dundee-Crown losing pitcher Jared Ludwig. The only run charged to him was unearned due to a fourth-inning flyball off the bat of Matt Kielbasa, which was dropped by the D-C left fielder for a two-base error. Hampshire pinch runner Alec Consigny advanced to third base on a passed ball before Manning drove in the game's only run with a line-drive single to left field.
"They executed and we didn't," Dundee-Crown coach John Anderson said. "They scored on an error because we can't catch flyballs. Jared battled tough out there. The only run he gave up was unearned and the guy should have never scored. It's terrible baseball. You can't give away games like this. It's embarrassing."
Ludwig held the Whip-Purs to 6 hits and a walk in 7 innings. A right-hander who pitches to contact, he didn't strike out any batters but he induced 15 groundouts.
"I was hitting my spots really well and getting a lot of groundball outs," Ludwig said.