Baseball: Barrington rallies in last at-bat to beat Hersey
It was bottoms up for a Barrington.
The Broncos used clutch hitting from their bottom of their lineup to rally for two runs in the bottom of the seventh to stun Hersey 3-2 Friday in Barrington.
“This was a great baseball game,” Barrington coach Pat Wire said. “It was a war between two good teams. I am proud of our guys for rallying and just clawing away.”
With one out, the bottom three of the Broncos lineup was due up. That trio — Peter Ensign, Caid Heick and Zack Ostergaard — were hitless in their five at-bats in the game with four strikeouts.
Despite that, Wire opted to stand pat.
“I was in a position that should I pinch hit or not,” Wire said. “Frankly, it was more of trust fault. I wanted Peter (Ensign) to hit. He had delivered for us. I knew he has two strikeouts, but he starts the rally.”
Ensign made his coach look good by driving a single up the middle. Heick then followed with a seeing-eye single through the left side. Number nine hitter Ostergaard then dropped a perfect bunt down the third baseline to load the bases.
That set the stage for Barrington’s leadoff hitter, Jackson Roberts. The sophomore, who had doubled home a run in the fifth, lofted a sacrifice fly to center to tie the game at 2-2.
“I was just hoping for a shot and see what we could do,” said Roberts, who is a sophomore and had two hits and two RBI.
“I just wanted to make something happen and get it to the next guy.”
With runners on first and second, Aidan Gryzlo beat out an infield hit to load the bases. It was the sixth infield hit for Barrington, which would finish with 10 hits.
Jackson Cavaliero gave the Broncos that 10th hit when he slapped a single just past the third baseman to score Heick with the game-winning run.
“I was 0-for-3 for the day and I didn’t want to let the team down,” said Cavaliero, who bats third for the Broncos. “I got a fastball in the pitch right before that that I missed. I had a good feeling he was going to come back with another one. I didn’t want him to beat me, I put the ball in play and made their defense work. And I found a hole.”
Barrington was able to stay close in the game thanks to the pitching of Jack Postma. The freshman allowed just four hits and two runs while pitching a complete game.
Hersey (18-4, 6-3) had taken a 2-0 lead thanks to a homer by Keegan Luxem in the third. The Huskies then tallied another run in the fourth as Diego Garcia’s sacrifice fly scored Chuck Meister, who had doubled earlier.
“I had all faith in my defense today,” Postma said. “They are the ones who helped the win today. The home run was devastating. The next inning back-to-back shots. It was hard coming back. But I kept my head up and just kept pumping the zone.”
The win keeps Barrington (15-5-1, 8-1) one game behind Fremd (18-0-1, 9-0) in the MSL West. Fremd rallied for six runs in the bottom of the sixth to beat Rolling Meadows 7-2 on Friday. Barrington and Fremd will play each other next Monday and Wednesday.
Despite the loss, Hersey stayed tied for first in the MSL East after Prospect (14-6-1, 6-3) dropped a 10-5 decision to Conant.
“It was a great baseball game,” Hersey coach Wally Brownley said. “It always is when we play them. I thought we swung it today. We barreled some balls. There was just enough wind to knock some of them down. Most importantly we compete. It is not like we are striking out. We are putting the ball in play with hard outs.”