Plainfield South spoils Elk Grove’s home opener
Plainfield South went extra Monday.
The Cougars opted to travel 43 miles to Elk Grove despite a rainy forecast for an early morning baseball game. Plainfield South was then rewarded with that effort with a little bit more.
The Cougars banged out 11 hits, all of which went for extra bases, as they overpowered Elk Grove 10-4.
“We were seeing the ball real well today,” Plainfield South coach Phil Bodine said. “It is early in the season, but the guys have been hitting well so far. We are hoping to continue to build on this.”
Griffin Acevedo got Plainfield South (2-0) off to superb start in the rain when he hit the first pitch for, a double to left. Blake Pommachannom followed with a double and then Daniel McCauley tripled to right. He would score on Evan Carey’s sacrifice fly and the Cougars had a quick 3-0 lead.
“It was fine playing in the rain,” said Carey, who would double in each of his next three at-bats.
“The extra bases were just great for all of us. The ball carried well here.”
Elk Grove (0-2), which worked extra hard to get and keep the field available to play, picked up a reward of its own in its half of the second.
Isaac Santkowski belted a two-run homer to left, scoring Cooper Casterton, who had walked, to cut the lead to 3-2. It was one of the two hits Sankowski had in the game.
Plainfield was able to surge further ahead in its next at-bat.
Consecutive doubles by McCauley, who had two hits in the game, along with Carey and Michael Ingram led to a pair of runs. Caden Piersall then belted a two-out homer to make it 7-2.
Elk Groce chipped away over the next three innings to close to 7-4. Daniel Pasterski had an RBI single to score Nathan Dean, who had singled in the third. Miles Schwartz, who reached on a fielder’s choice in the fifth, would then score on a wild pitch.
Plainfield South ended the Grenadiers’ hopes for a comeback in the sixth. Pommachannom blasted a long home run to left to score Adrian Perez, who had walked.
“I was waiting on that pitch all game,” Pommachannom said. “He got a pitch up and I just drove it.”
Later in the inning, Carey, who had his third double of the game, closed out the scoring by advancing home after a wild pitch and a throwing error.
“We are going to challenge hitters,” Elk Grove coach Steve Lesniak said. “We want to get ahead and our guys did that for us. We would rather have that than have guys getting free passes. You have to tip you hat to them, they swung their bats well today.”
Elk Grove had runners on in each of its last two at-bats. But the Grens couldn’t push any runs across in their first home game of the season.
“We are a young team and it is still very early,” Lesniak said. “But I liked how we responded. We got down early and then came back to make it 3-2. They put a four-spot and we answered. We didn’t come back with enough today, but there were moments where the game was within reach until late in the sixth inning.”