Baseball: Batavia, St. Charles East split two more 1-run games

Dylan Schick pitched Batavia to a 1-0, eight-inning victory in the first game of a doubleheader at St. Charles East Saturday.

Cole Conn bunted the Saints to a 5-4 win in Game 2 to avert the DuKane Conference series sweep.

All three games were decided by a run. Batavia won Friday's series opener 2-1 when Joey Sartain doubled in the sixth inning to score Jack Meyers.

The Bulldogs conjured more late-game magic Saturday morning. With two outs in the eighth inning, Cole Nelson hit an 0-2 curveball the opposite way to left field to drive in courtesy runner Sam Barus from second base with the game's only run.

"I had two strikes on me so I just had to protect the plate," said Nelson, batting .437 after Saturday's 3-for-8, 2 RBI performance. "He threw me a low curveball so I just found a way to get it in."

Schick made the run stand up in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, the right-handed senior struck out Ben Testo as a runner on first base attempted to steal second.

Testo, the umpire ruled, then stepped in the way of Batavia catcher Andrew Konsbruck. The runner was ruled out by interference, thus ending the game with a strike-em-out, rule-'em-out double play.

"That was a tough way to end it for them, given that I know the batter, but it was a good way to end it," Schick said. "It was a good in-the-moment kind of play."

Schick (2-1) said he added a two-seam fastball to his arsenal Saturday. It will likely stay in the arsenal following a 3-hit, 2-walk, 8-strikeout game.

"He was lights out," Batavia coach Alex Beckmann said. "He was pounding the zone early. That was one of the best performances he's had for us. He gets better each game."

Schick outdueled Nick Manthei, who took a no-decision despite holding the Bulldogs to 6 hits and a walk in 7 innings. He struck out six. Grant Meador took the loss in relief.

The second game was a back-and-forth affair.

Batavia (14-8, 8-5) jumped to a 2-0, first-inning lead, keyed by a Nelson RBI triple.

St. Charles East (14-7-1, 9-5) scored three times in the third inning to take the lead. Sophomore Kyle Hayes hit his eighth home run of the season, a solo shot, to make it 2-2. Cole Conn followed with a blast of his own to left-center field to put the Saints ahead.

Batavia tied it 4-4 in the fifth inning when Marko Yager doubled with two outs and scored on a Carter Gette single.

The Saints loaded the bases in the seventh inning against reliever Ian Konsbruck. Clay Conn hit a one-out single and advanced to second on a passed ball.

Beckmann elected to intentionally walk the next batter and pitch to Hayes. However, a wild pitch advanced the runners so Hayes was likewise intentionally walked.

Beckmann then turned the ball over to closer Ryan Jerger with Cole Conn due up with one out.

Cole Conn took a pitch to even the count at 1-1. Saints coach Len Asquini then called for the suicide squeeze. Clay Conn sprinted down the line from third base as Jerger fired a helmet-high pitch toward the plate.

"I saw that pitch and I was like "uhhhhh, this is going to backfire,'" Asquini said.

Cole Conn somehow managed to contact the high pitch and lay down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt. Batavia's third baseman had no play at the plate.

"I didn't think it would go fair, but it did," Cole Conn said of his bunt.

"There's really not much you can do to defend that," Beckmann said. "That ball was way up and out. He went and got it. It was a fitting end to the day and the series between two evenly matched teams."