Hofstetter's blast powers Geneva

It was a scenario that brings out the best in Cory Hofstetter.

"I like coming up in pressure situations," the Geneva senior said.

With the Vikings and Kaneland tied 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth in the first of a three-game Western Sun Conference baseball series, Hofstetter drilled a prodigious blast over the right center-field fence Tuesday afternoon in Geneva.

Riley Perry, the Vikings' flame-throwing starter, did the rest. The junior fanned the last of his 13 victims with the tying run at the plate in the top of the seventh to secure the Vikings' 5-3 home win.

"I was looking fastball," Hofstetter said of his mammoth shot that landed in left field on the sophomore softball field. "(Kaneland starter Jeff Smith) did a real nice job of changing speeds. He kept everybody off-balance."

The Vikings' 3-run fifth inning was the final offense in a peculiar game that pitted two of the finest pitchers in the league.

In conditions reminiscent of a playoff football setting, the game had a level of intenseness to match the dropping temperatures and biting winds.

Joe Camiliere put the Knights (5-2, 0-1) on the board in the first inning, scoring without benefit of a hit. But Geneva (5-1, 1-0) responded with run-scoring doubles by Brian Cornick and AJ Sarantopulos, respectively, in the third and fourth innings.

Perry, meanwhile, found a cure for some early-game wildness, recording all six outs during the same span via strikeouts. But Smith was the epitome of the crafty southpaw for the Knights, and the pitcher's duel was the central line of drama during the middle portions.

"They both did a great job," said Kaneland coach Brian Aversa.

"Both pitchers deserved a lot of credit," said Geneva coach Matt Hahn.

Kaneland junior Dave Dudzinski followed a Geneva fielding error in the Knights' fifth with a single up the middle, and Kaneland took a 3-2 lead on a pair of unearned runs.

But Perry limited the damage with a bases-loaded come backer, and clutch two-out hitting turned the game back in the Vikings' favor.

Eric Renner plated Jerrod Campbell with a single to right to tie the game at 3-3, setting the stage for Hofstetter to deliver the decisive blow.

"Eric's hit was the biggest hit of the game," said Hahn.

"We can't let (Hofstetter) beat us like that anymore this series," Aversa said. "That was the lesson we learned today."

Camiliere had an apparent seventh-inning solo home run reduced to a ground-rule double as Crawford crashed into the center-field fence trying to field his lined shot. The ball went off Crawford's glove and over the fence, but high school rules have a different interpretation than professional outcomes.

Perry recorded the final two outs to make it a moot point in his complete-game, 4-hit win.