Baseball: Bartlett trips up West Aurora
Bartlett managed just 5 singles against West Aurora, but the Hawks took full advantage by doing the little things right in a 5-4 win in Upstate Eight Valley baseball action in Bartlett Thursday.
Tyler Yang overcame a 3-run third inning to earn the win for the Hawks. Leadoff man Joey Allen had 2 hits and scored twice, and Andrew Fehr scored a run and drove in 2 without a hit for Bartlett (9-14).
Paulo Maravillo homered and Dustin Tomas had 2 hits for the Blackhawks, who still took the series 2 games to 1.
"We played little ball in a lot of ways and we did the little things to win the game," said Bartlett coach Devin Rosen. "It was good to see that. It's a nice, clean win for us."
The Hawks snapped a 4-4 tie in the sixth when Joey Tomazin led off with a walk. Ben Fisher sacrificed him to second and he came around to score on Mike Vaca's grounder through the hole.
Bartlett had taken the lead an inning earlier when Sam Mallinas walked. Allen reached when his high pop to short center field fell amid four Blackhawks. Jacob Chowanec singled to score a run and Fehr delivered a sacrifice fly.
West Aurora (17-7) grabbed a 3-1 lead in the third. Maravillo led off with a line drive that cleared the fence in left-center. Alec Lossel-Young and Tomas delivered RBI hits later on.
Yang settled down after that inning, retiring 9 of the final 11 batters he faced. The only Blackhawk to touch him for a hit was Tomas, who doubled in the sixth. He scored on Adrian Ruiz's sac fly to tie the game at 4-4.
Yang walked 1 and struck out 3 in 6 innings. Chowanec pitched the seventh to earn the save.
Bartlett took advantage of 4 walks, not to mention the botched pop up.
"What did we have, four walks, and I think three of the walks scored," said West Aurora coach John Reeves. "That's the name of the game. You give some free passes and it seems like every time you do that, they score. It's unfortunate that we gave them some runs there."
The Blackhawks had a chance to tie in the seventh after Ryan Tuescher led off with a single to center. Anthony Malczyk sacrificed him to second, but Fehr caught foul pop-ups by Cam Zimmerman and Lossel-Young to end it.