Larkin dumps Elgin again 5-3 in Upstate Eight Conference
Larkin pitcher Brian Fahey twice put himself behind the eight-ball, and twice he made Elgin's hitters scratch to earn a 5-3 Upstate Eight Conference victory on Wednesday.
Visiting Larkin (7-7, 3-1) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a Luc Geier single before 2 Fahey walks and an error at shortstop loaded the bases for the Maroons in the bottom of the first.
Fahey responded by working the corners of the plate for 3 straight strikeouts, 2 swinging.
Larkin scored twice in the third inning, thanks to a 2-run error in left field, but Fahey again found trouble by issuing a one-out walk and allowing a single by Tom Roth. Again the senior responded with strikeouts to get out of the jam, punching out Elgin's Nos. 4 and 5 hitters to keep the Maroons off the scoreboard.
"I just beared down," said Fahey, who allowed 1 unearned run in a 78-pitch, 4-inning, changeup-laden performance to improve to 2-0. "I had trouble throwing strikes at first, but I started throwing strikes and got out of it. (The home-plate umpire) was giving me the corner on the outside, not so much the inside. I kept it outside until they realized what was going on, but I kept it out there for a while."
The Maroons' inability to put the ball in play in key situations early in the game forced them to play catch up all afternoon.
"We dug our hole," Elgin coach David Foerster said. "We dug it by not producing in situations where we could get a run across, not so much getting basehits but just putting the ball in play, which would give us a run or two here or there. Then that adds up and it's a different scenario in the fifth or sixth, when we were putting runs on the board.
"As we've played some games now, that shouldn't be the issue. Early on, maybe it was that we hadn't seen a lot of live pitching. But now we're used to it and we're, I guess, digressing instead of progressing. That's something we've got to fix. I have confidence in them. They're a good group of kids, but we have to find a way to change that and score runs."
Elgin (0-7, 0-4) broke through with an unearned run in the third inning to make the deficit 4-1. Starting pitcher Casey Knaak helped himself with a sacrifice fly that scored Cody Thomas.
The Maroons drew within 4-3 in the fifth inning against reliever Brandon Anderson on a 2-run single to the right-field wall by No. 7 hitter Mike Stackowiak. However, Larkin right fielder Reid Ellis threw Stackowiak out as he tried to stretch his hit into a double, which stranded the tying run at third base.
The Royals added an insurance run in the seventh inning. Ellis led off with a single before Knaak walked Jon Meidel and Scott Harm to load the bases with one out. Knaak, a lefty, was then lifted after tossing 61/3 innings in which he allowed 7 hits, walked six and struck out four.
Larkin's Joe Stace, who blistered the ball twice previously but right at defenders, greeted reliever Tyler Loiseau with a fielder's choice grounder to score Ellis for a 5-3 lead.
Anderson then completed his 3-inning save by retiring Elgin's No. 2, 3 and 4 hitters in order in the seventh to give Larkin a sweep of the 2-game series. The victory lifted the Royals to the .500 mark.
"This will give us a little boost for the rest of the week," said Larkin catcher Zach Fluhler, whose squeeze bunt in the fourth inning scored Justin Lewis and staked Larkin to a 4-0 lead. "We've all got a lot more confidence and our pitchers have a lot more confidence. They're throwing a lot of strikes."
Larkin's Justin Kalusa takes the mound today at home against Lake Park as the Royals go for their third straight win. Elgin will try to earn its first victory of the season against Hoffman Estates in a nonconference game on Saturday.
"I have a feeling we're on the track," Stackowiak said. "We were up for this game. We just have to keep fighting and sooner or later we'll win."