Rivalry Saturday, Tri-Cities style
Adam Karger and Brian Krolikowski looked as though they were operating on a normal four days rest.
The Batavia senior right-handers answered their early wake-up calls and made Geneva pay the price for the Bulldogs' unexpected late-season hiatus.
Returning to competitive play for the first time in nine days, the Batavia baseball team made a resounding statement in its Western Sun Conference doubleheader sweep of Geneva Saturday morning on the Vikings' home field.
Karger and Krolikowski were masterful, each allowing a mere run in the Vikings' typically less-than-friendly-confines to power the Bulldogs past their archrivals.
Krolikowski provided all the offense Batavia would need; the Miami of Ohio recruit had a first-inning 2-run single in the Bulldogs' 3-1 opening-game win, and his 3-run blast in the fifth inning of the nightcap was the lethal blow in their 5-1 victory.
Batavia improved to 17-5 overall and dropped Geneva two and half games behind them in league play with its 12th win in 13 outings.
The Vikings fell to 15-7 and 10-4.
"I just wanted to come and get a quick first inning, get the momentum toward us so we could go out and stick it to them," Karger said. "(Krolikowski and I) were hitting our spots, mixing up our pitches, getting hitters off-balance."
The birds were still chirping when Geneva ace Riley Perry threw the first pitch at slightly after 8 a.m. as the doubleheader started at the unusual hour to accommodate the Bulldogs' prom.
Seeking his seventh win without a loss, Perry pitched admirably himself, shutting down the Batavia offense after the third inning.
But Krolikowski staked Batavia to a 2-0 first-inning lead when he singled up the middle to drive in Joe Aguilar and Tim Drish.
"We have a great team chemistry," Krolikowski said.
A.J. Sarantopulos' second-inning solo blast halved the Vikings' deficit, but it was all the offense Geneva could muster against Karger, who improved to 6-0 on the season.
Karger fanned six in the opener, and Jordan Coffey provided his classmate an insurance run with a third-inning single.
"I don't know if I would call him our ace right now, but Adam has been lights out," Batavia coach Matt Holm said. "Everyone always talk about Jordan or Krolikowski (as our ace). We have three No. 1s. I would like to sign them all to long-term contracts."
The second game had all the makings of another battle of hurlers; Krolikowski and Geneva junior Alex Sroka put up nothing but goose eggs through the first four innings.
But Batavia broke through with some two-out magic in its half of the fifth.
Tim Schofield doubled home Tyler Lindquist, and the former scored when Geneva failed to field a hot shot by Drish.
Aguilar had walked preceding the Drish at-bat, and both runners trotted home after Krolikowski launched his sixth home run of the spring to center field.
"(Sroka) was starting (us) off with a lot of first-pitch curveballs, so I just went up to bat and said if this first-pitch curveball is a strike I'm going to swing at it," Krolikowski said.
"I thought the home run sucked the life out of us," Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. "We were in the game, we were in the game and all of a sudden Krolikowski hit the home run."
Sroka had 3 of the Vikings' 4 hits against Krolikowski, who fanned eight while walking only one, and his sixth-inning double scored Brian Cornick.
"I think every (starting) pitcher pitched well today," Hahn said. "We hit the ball pretty well, but we didn't get any timely hits."
The series concludes Monday at Batavia.
The Bulldogs then have a three-game series against Glenbard South starting Tuesday, and conclude their hectic week with a makeup game against Kaneland on Friday.
"(The two complete games today give) us a great advantage for next week," Holm said.