Baseball: South Elgin blanks Elgin

Dylan Wells' nickname is simply The Pitcher.

It's all he does. And luckily for the South Elgin baseball team, he plied his trade efficiently in a 10-0 run-rule victory Saturday over Elgin.

The junior scattered 7 hits and stranded the same amount of baserunners - including 3 on third base - to help the Storm improve to 9-4 on the season. He also struck out 6 and walked just 1.

"That's my only job," Wells said of taking the mound. "I just try to make the right pitches at the right time, and let them hit the ball for my defense to make the plays."

"He got through some innings where things could have gotten carried away," added South Elgin interim coach Bobby Slania, standing in for hospitalized head coach Jim Kating. "He threw the right pitches at the right time."

As the score indicates, Wells got plenty of help from his offense, as the Storm broke the game open with a 5-spot in the fourth inning, thanks to 4 hits off Elgin starter and loser Brandon Stork, who also issued 2 walks.

But Wells buckled down when it counted, with no situation more key than in the top of the fifth. With 2 out, a runner on second and the Storm up 6-0, Wells gave up a single to Eddy Ramos and walked Payton Reynolds to load the bases. He then worked Rigoberto Sanchez to 3-2 before inducing him to pop up to first baseman Joseph Roberson.

One wrong move and suddenly it's a 6-2 or even 6-3 ballgame.

Instead, South Elgin tacked on 4 more runs in the bottom of the sixth, including a 2-run double by Mitch Butvilas, to win by the 10-run rule and thus prevent Wells from having to return to the mound in the top of the seventh.

Across the diamond, Maroons' coach Dave Foerster lamented more than just the stranded runners as his club fell to 4-13.

"Our problem is we're getting kind of worse defensively, and we've had a lot of mental mistakes and coupling that with our physical mistakes, it's making it hard for us to be competitive in games," he said.

But there was also simple dumb luck. Freshman Patrick Keaty singled past a drawn-in Elgin infield to drive in a pair and break open the game in the fourth.

"A good team like that, they got the hits they needed to score runs," said Stork, who gave up 6 hits, 6 earned runs and walked 4. He also had a pair of singles.

Storm leadoff hitter Justin Howard singled, doubled, reached on a fielder's choice and scored 3 runs.