Baseball: Schick, Batavia handcuff Elgin

Batavia pitcher Dylan Schick admitted he felt some butterflies before Wednesday's game at Elgin.

The junior right-hander had already made two relief appearances but this was his first varsity start, after all.

Any apprehension he felt dissipated after the second inning, by which time it was clear Schick could throw his sharp curveball for strikes consistently.

He struck out the side in the inning and went on to set a new career high with 11. He handcuffed the Maroons on 3 hits and did not issue a walk in 6 innings of a 6-0 Upstate Eight River road win.

Schick threw an effective changeup to complement his fastball, but he relied heavily on the curveball to shut down Elgin (2-7, 0-2).

"It was my go-to if I needed a strike," he said. "If I didn't want to throw them anything to hit, I just tried to put it through the strike zone."

"That's the key to our pitchers," said Batavia coach Alex Beckmann, whose team improved to 5-2, 2-0. "We don't have anyone that can blow it by you, but if we can mix it up we've got a shot against anyone."

Elgin pitcher Kyle Coates, also a junior right-hander, was the hard-luck loser, though his improved curveball was just as tough on Batavia as Schick's was on the Maroons.

Coates allowed an unearned, first-inning run on Batavia senior Justin Pelley's single. The line drive scored junior Cole Nelson, who reached base on a two-out infield error and stole second.

Otherwise, Batavia's offense struggled against Coates one day after the Bulldogs defeated Elgin 10-0 in the opener of the 3-game series. The sidearmer set a new career high with 10 strikeouts, issued a lone walk and escaped multiple threats caused by 4 Elgin errors to keep it a 1-0 ballgame into the seventh inning.

"Obviously, the strikeouts are rewarding, but it's great to be putting up zeros inning in and inning out," said Coates, who tipped his hat to his coach and catcher Kejuan Harvey for calling a good game. "I mean, it's not the result we were looking for, but it was great to see that we were working today."

Batavia's offense got to Coates as he approached his pitch limit. No. 9 hitter Michael Niemiec's infield hit with runners at the corners scored Jack Meyers to make it 2-0. Two more Elgin errors and a walk facilitated a 5-run Batavia rally.

Senior reliever Kyle Desilva used a submarine delivery to strike out a pair in a 1-2-3 seventh inning to complete Batavia's third straight win.

Nelson accounted for 2 of Batavia's 6 hits. Pelley (2 RBI), Niemiec, Jared Martin, and Blake Carlson also singled.

Coates doubled and Tim Mitchell and Cameron Jackson singled to give Elgin its only baserunners against the Bulldogs, who played errorless defense and issued no walks.