Baseball: Maine West, Hoffman Estates fit to be tied
Frustration turned into darkness and darkness turned into a 3-3 tie for the Maine West and Hoffman Estates baseball teams Wednesday in Hoffman Estates.
Maine West committed 5 errors and Hoffman left the bases loaded on two separate occasions as both teams were disappointed with the outcome.
"The poor fielding has been the story for us this year," Maine West coach Mike Randazzo said. "I do think we have a real good team. They put the ball in play and our guys made the errors."
Hoffman Estates coach Andrew Wulbecker felt a bit frustrated with his team's inability to get the hit when needed.
"It was a tough one today," said Wulbecker, who earned his first win as a head coach on Tuesday when his team beat Rockford Boylan 16-15.
"We had our chances and we squandered them late. We are starting to do the little things better than we were. We are giving ourselves opportunities to score. We just need that big hit."
Maine West (1-6-1), which traveled to Arizona for spring break for the first time in program history, grabbed a 2-0 lead in the third. The Warriors had 4 consecutive hits - by Justin Schoeller, David Roscoe, Emmett Olson and Anthony Salemi - to jump ahead.
Hoffman Estates (1-7-1) was able to tie the game in the fourth without the benefit of a hit.
Adam Burks walked and went to third on a pair of errors on a batted ball by Logan Willis, which put Willis on second. Burks scored and Willis moved up a base on Ben Herbert's groundout. Willis then scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-2.
Hoffman proceeded to load the bases after that, but Nick Hernandez got a strikeout to end the threat.
Maine West pulled ahead 3-2 in the fifth on a homer by Olson.
"I was really looking for a first-pitch fastball," said Olson, who finished the day with 2 hits and 2 RBI. "And that's what I got. I just sat on it and got zoned in and it felt good off the bat."
Hoffman tied the game in its half of the inning thanks to a pair of hits by Kyle Krogstad and a perfectly executed hit and run by Burks that put runners on the corners with one out. Krogstad then was able to score on an errant pickoff attempt on Burks to tie the game at 3-3.
Again Hoffman loaded the bases and again Maine West turned the Hawks away. This time Vince Parcelling shut the door when he got a ground ball fielders choice to close out the inning.
Both teams had their chances in the seventh, but came away without a run.
Maine West had two runners on, thanks to a pair of walks. But Jim Kliver got a called third strike to end that threat.
Burks, who was on base in all four plate appearances, was hoping to score the winning run after he was hit by a pitch and went to second on a ground out. But he was stranded there after a pair of strikeouts.
"We just couldn't get the job done in certain situations," Burks said. "We needed to put the ball in play and it just couldn't happen."