Baseball: Larkin legs out another victory over Elgin
It took an exciting finish after a near collapse, but Larkin made it two in a row on the baseball diamond against visiting crosstown rival Elgin on Friday with a 3-2 Upstate Eight River Division win on Friday.
The Royals sqandered a 2-0 lead in the top of the seventh inning as the Maroons rallied to tie the score at 2-2. However, Larkin bounced back with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out the win. Larkin also won the first game of the series on Thursday, 11-1 in six innings.
Gunnar Boley led off the bottom of the seventh for the Royals with a single and then went to second on a walk to Michael Rodriquez and to third on a sacrifice bunt by Andres Bonnot. The next batter, Kobe Soumivong, hit a groundball to first base. Boley, who had a sizable lead at third base, sprinted down the line on contact to beat the throw home for the winning run.
"I was ready to score no matter what," Boley said. "As soon as it was hit I hustled my butt down the line. After we gave up the lead our attitude was still good. We just stayed in the moment. I knew I was leading off the next inning and just wanted to get the job done and started us off with a hit."
For the second day in a row, a Larkin left-hander baffled Maroon hitters. Royals sophomore Max Anderson cruised through the first six innings, allowing just 1 hit while striking out eight and walking two.
"Max knows exactly what he needs to do out there," Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. "He doesn't try to overpower anyone. He just consistently throws three different pitches for strikes and keeps the ball down in the zone. He is very advanced for just being a sophomore."
Anderson, however, ran into trouble in the seventh inning.
The Maroons rally started when Matthew Turner reached on an error to start the inning. Cameron Jackson followed with a single to right. With two outs Turner scored on a wild pitch. Jackson then scored the tying run on an RBI to single to right field on by Carlos Esparza on a 3-2 count.
Anderson (3-0) managed to get out of the inning when Esparza was caught trying to steal second base.
"My arm felt great the whole game," Anderson said. "My change up was really working and I was able to pound the outside corner with my fastball. They caught up to me a little bit in the seventh inning and I had bad location on a couple of pitches. But I had trust my teammates would still pull it out for us."
Jack Reuter scored the Royals' first run after leading off the first inning with a single and later coming home on a passed ball. Aaron Lazowick added an RBI double in the second inning.
"We knew they were going to come back and play us tough," Esterino said. "It was a good tight baseball game. I was just pleased with way we didn't panic when we gave up the lead. It showed a level of maturity and we were able to stay in the moment."
Elgin starter Jack Sitter pitched 6 strong innings, allowing just 2 runs on 6 hits. Turner took the loss in relief for the Maroons, who fell to 1-7, 0-2.
"We played much better today and battled," Elgin coach Dave Foerster. "We were able to minimize our mistakes and overcome the ones we made. You never want to settle for moral victories, but this was at least a step forward for us."