Baseball: Dundee-Crown dominates Burlington Central
It was certainly the type of effort and result the Dundee-Crown baseball team needed.
Struggling through the early portion of the 2019 season, the Chargers received a 5-inning, 1-hit shutout from Nick Gregory and offensively collected 12 hits in a 11-0 nonconference win over Burlington Central on a bitterly cold, blustery Friday afternoon in Carpentersville.
"It was a good positive win for us," said D-C coach Matt Mueller. "We have struggled swinging the bats so it was nice to see us score early. Nick (Gregory) did a great job of locating his pitches under some tough weather conditions."
Gregory, who retired the first 11 Rockets (6-6) he faced, struck out 7 and walked 2 in 5 innings of work.
The first Central batter to reach base was Colton Wallace, who walked with 2 outs in the fourth.
The only Rocket hit of the game was a wind-aided infield single by Ethan Rodriguez in the fifth inning.
"I had really good stuff and my two-seam fastball was really moving," said Gregory. "It was tough conditions to pitch in and it was nice to be on the other side of a 10-run game."
The Chargers (3-10) seized control of the game with 5 runs in the first inning.
Belting out 5 hits, Justin Lawson collected a 2-run double and Ray Gestritch drove in 2 with a single while Jordan Lyter had a run-scoring single as the Chargers led 5-0 after one inning.
"Scoring five runs in the first inning really took the pressure off the team and Nick," said Mueller, an assistant at Burlington Central under Kyle Nelson for five years. "We hope this win will get us on a roll."
D-C put the game out of reach with 6 in the third. With 11 batters coming to the plate, the key hits for Dundee-Crown came on a 2-run single by Justin Colon, an RBI double from David Guzman along with run-scoring singles from Gestritch, Evan Echlin and Nick Cuciarone.
Leading the 11-hit attack for the Chargers were Gregory (2 stolen bases, 1 run scored), Gestritch (3 RBI), Evan Echlin (2 runs scored, RBI) and Lyter.
Quenten Werner was the starting and losing pitcher for the Rockets.
"Gregory dictated the game on he mound," said Nelson. "He made his pitches and we didn't execute our game plan offensively. They scored early and they got the advantage."
Central will join the Fox Valley Conference during the 2019-2020 school year.
"The Fox Valley Conference is an outstanding baseball conference and we are looking forward to the challenge," said Nelson. "We try to play most of our nonconference game against the FVC teams. We will be ready."