Baseball: Elk Grove blanks Plainfield East
The weather warmed up Thursday and so did the pitching for Elk Grove's baseball team.
Ryne Singsank threw five scoreless innings and Xander Rojahn finished with two more as Elk Grove scratched out a 3-0 nonconference win over Plainfield East in Elk Grove.
"I was staying back more and I felt like a whole new pitcher," said Singsank, who gave up 5 runs in two innings pitched last week in his first outing of the season.
"I was throwing a lot more strikes today. I was throwing a little bit harder and making all my pitches."
Singsank, who will pitch at Southern Illinois next year, struck out 8 and allowed just 1 hit, before giving way to Rohan in the top of the sixth after hitting a batter.
Rohan, who was making his first appearance this season on the bump, promptly picked off the Bengals' runner. Rohan, who will play at Triton College next year, allowed 1 hit, hit 2 batters and struck out 3 to preserve the win.
"Last year had a lot of bumps," said Rohan, who was injured most of the season last year. "I am back this year and everything is good. It felt great to be out there."
With the 6-foot-8 Singsank and the 6-2 Rohan on the hill and pitching well, it could bode well for Elk Grove (1-2).
"That is what we thought Ryne Singsank is capable of," Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna said. "If he throws strikes and gets ahead of hitters, he can take over a game. And to have Xander on the back end. He wasn't healthy last year. If he is healthy, he should be one of the top pitchers around. And we feel the same way about Ryne."
Elk Grove was literally stepping onto its home field for the first time this season. Singsank kept Plainfield East (5-2) in check while the Grenadier offense slowly got going.
Elk Grove left two runners in scoring position in the first. The Grens then appeared to be on their way to coming up empty again in the third when they loaded the bases with no outs.
Matt Crimmins walked, Nick Hoffman singled and Mark Matos laid down a sweet bunt that went for a hit to load the bases. After a pop out, Rohan lofted a fly ball to left that was just deep enough to score Crimmins to make it 1-0.
The Grens were able to get some breathing room in the sixth. They loaded the bases again with one out on a single Joe Gaskill, another perfect bunt for a hit by Josh Periaswamy and a hit batter from Sebastian Garza.
The inning appeared to be over when Crimmins hit a ground ball to the shortstop, nearly right over second base. After a force out at second, the throw was high, allowing Gaskill and Periaswamy to score.
"We would like to see us get a couple more runs and make things more comfortable," Beyna said. "But at the end we put some balls in play and we were able to add on, so it was a real good win for us."