Baseball: Eisenbarth fans 12, leads Barrington over Prospect
It turns out that Barrington's Logan Eisenbarth has a pretty good encore.
After striking out 15 in his last start, Eisenbarth followed up with 12 strikeouts on Tuesday as Barrington held off Prospect 3-2 in a game that had a playoff atmosphere.
Eisenbarth threw a complete game win last Wednesday in the rain against Conant. On Tuesday, it was a sunny, but cool day.
Eisenbarth went six innings and struck out each of the Prospect players at least once. It was the second game in a row he accomplished that feat. He allowed just one unearned run and allowed four hits while walking one.
"I thought I couldn't do better than my Conant game," said Eisenbarth, who moved up a day so he could face Prospect.
"But this game had a playoff atmosphere. I just try to take the weather out of my head and just throw as hard as I can.
Barrington coach Pat Wire likes to pitch his starters on the same day each week. But he moved up Eisenbarth a day this week and will most likely move him up a day next week to face Palatine.
"He was magnificent again for us," Wire said. "We don't boot the ball there in those situations and he is cruising and maybe he goes the seventh. We decided to throw Eisenbarth against them because I think they are a strong contender in the East. And we may see them again."
Eisenbarth and Prospect's Cole Cacini dueled each other for nearly five innings. Cacini was also superb in his start, striking out 6. His only mistake was a two-run home run he surrendered to Barrington's Jake Kohanzo in the fifth.
Barrington (14-1-2), which tied Prospect 3-3 in a nonconference game a couple weeks ago, was able to put the first run in the board.
With two out in the second, Danny Hoffman reached for the Broncos on a single.
It appeared the inning was over when Evan Jno-Baptiste struck out. However, a balk was called, moving Hoffman to second and giving Jno-Baptiste new life. The Wisconsin-Milwaukee commit promptly doubled to score Hoffman.
Prospect (6-9-1) came back to tie the game in the third.
Cade Corey singled. He came around to score on consecutive errors by Barrington. Brady Jensen drove the run home on one of those errors. But Eisenbarth avoided any other problems by striking out the next two Knights to end the threat.
Barrington took the lead for good in the fifth on Kohanzo's bomb to left field, scoring Nick Larson, who has singled. It was Kohanzo's second home run in as many days.
"I am feeling good," said Kohanzo, who also picked up the win on the mound on Monday.
"I knew right away. That one went pretty far. It came at a good time for us."
Prospect made it interesting in the seventh.
Barrington's Bruno Pallas, who relieved Eisenbarth, got two quick outs. Peyton Burgh then singled and Ethan Rossi was hit by a pitch. Kyle Odeshoo singled home Burgh to make it 3-2 and Gavin Flanagan was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Pallas then found his groove with a strikeout to preserve the win.
"You could tell from the chatter back and forth that there was a great deal of competitive intensity," Wire said.
It was the second loss by one run in as many days for Prospect. But despite that, Prospect coach Ross Giusti said his team he feels good about his team's direction.
"Today was kind of a moral victory for us," Giusti said. "I thought we really came out and competed against a real good pitcher. What we are struggling with is getting that two-out hit. We are in the verge of opening games up. We are getting good pitching. We just need the bats to catch up."