Baseball: Barrington manages to top Conant in 8
Pat Wire has won 140 games as baseball coach at Barrington. And according to Wire, Wednesday's 5-4, 8-inning win over Conant in Hoffman Estates ranks near the top.
"This may be one of my favorite wins," said Wire, who is in his sixth season guiding the Broncos. "Because I appreciate the chess match of what you see in Major League Baseball, and being able to go to pitching matchups to substitutions. I loved all of that battling."
Wire nearly pulled all the right levers for Barrington (13-2-2, 8-0). The Broncos were able to manufacture runs when opportunities presented themselves. They also made 4 pitching changes, with sophomore Nate Holler picking up the win.
"We had our guys step up and just find a way to scrap anything we could," Wire said. "I thought we did a good job."
By finding a way to win, Barrington has a 3-game lead over Conant (8-8-1, 4-3) and Palatine in the MSL West halfway through the conference schedule.
Barrington manufactured a pair of runs in the second.
After the Broncos faced just 2 pitches and had two outs in the innings, Jake Horcher and Jake Meyer singled. AJ Christopher then had an infield single and when the throw was wild, not only did Horcher score, but Wire, coaching third base, waved home Meyer, who also scored to make it 2-0.
Conant came back to tie in the third. Mason Sykes smashed a ball off the left field wall, scoring both Keegan Brandt, who had been hit by a pitch, and courtesy runner Luke VanBooven, who was running for Dave Sapyta, who had walked.
The Broncos again used their manufacturing skills to take a 3-2 lead. Meyer and Christoffer both singled. Johnny Gagne then hit a grounder on which Conant attempted to turn a double play. Gagne beat the throw to first, and Wire waved Meyer around after a wild throw to put the Broncos ahead 3-2.
Barrington found a way to score again by putting a few things in motion. Dave Mitchell singled and went to third on Mikey Owsley's single. With two out, Owsley stole second and just eluded the tag, while Mitchell raced home for a 4-2 lead.
Conant began to chip away at the Barrington lead.
Sapyta singled and VanBooven, running again, went to second on a wild pitch. He then scored on Tyler Hedman's single to center to make it 4-3.
The Cougars had a chance to tack on more run when they loaded the bases with one out. But Barrington's RJ Nowicki ended the threat by inducing the next hitter to roll into an inning-ending double play.
Conant did rally in the seventh to tie it. Sapyta reached second on a throwing error. VanBooven then scored when Jack Reiger, who had 3 hits, tripled to right. But Holler, who had came on in to begin the seventh inning, struck out the next batter to send the game into extra innings.
Barrington scored in its half of the eighth. The Broncos loaded the bases and with one out and Mitchell lofted a long fly to right, scoring Christoffer to make it 5-4.
"I was looking for a fastball to put the ball in play," Mitchell said. "The guys in front of me did a good job of getting on base and giving me an opportunity."
Conant had an opportunity to tie the game in the bottom half. Singles by Quinn Fitzgerald and Sam Ryan put the Cougars in a scoring opportunity. Holler then won a long battle with Sapyta, getting him to fly out deep to right.
"I just kept battling against them," Holler said. "I just tried to keep confident and keep throwing my pitches to right spots."
Conant coach Derek Fivelson said key mistakes hurt his team.
"We made too many mistakes early on," Fivelson said. "You can't make mistakes early on with a team like that. You have to play a perfect game to beat them and we didn't do that."