Batavia tops W. Aurora, sets victory record
The more comparisons the Batavia baseball team hears to 2004, the better.
With its 9-3 victory Wednesday over West Aurora in the Class 4A Willowbrook regional semifinals, Batavia accomplished something not even their 2004 Elite Eight team could - winning its 27th game.
Third-seed Batavia (27-6) set the school record for wins, scoring 4 runs in the fifth inning to break open what had been a tight 4-3 game. They will go for No. 28 at 11 a.m. Saturday against today's Willowbrook-St. Charles North winner.
"The guys have had a great run," said Batavia coach Matt Holm, whose 2004 team held the previous record with its 26-13 season.
The Bulldogs bounced back from Monday's nonconference loss to Wheaton North by scoring in all six of their at-bats against 18th seed West Aurora (13-21).
"We're just trying to tell ourselves to play as a team like we've been doing the whole season and stay within ourselves," said Jordan Coffey, who went 2-for-4. "We tried doing a little too much on Monday against Wheaton North. I think guys are like, we got our loss out of the way, let's stay strong and play smart baseball and play like we have all season."
Batavia did the little things well. Joe Aguliar had sacrifice bunts in the first and sixth innings that both led to runs by leadoff hitter Tim Schofield. Adam Karger laid down a bunt in the second inning that became another run when Henry DuQue followed with an RBI double.
"We just want to play with the lead," Holm said. "Early in the game we want to get the lead and later on break it open.
"That was something very early on when we lost a couple games those were the mistakes we were making, couldn't get bunts down, made a couple errors. Right now we are taking care of those things."
West Aurora failed to get down a bunt in the first inning on an at-bat that eventually became a double-play grounder. Then the Blackhawks broke down defensively with 5 errors, which led to unearned runs in the first, third and fourth innings, then 4 unearned runs in the fifth.
In the third, the Blackhawks let a foul pop by Brian Krolikowski drop. The Miami of Ohio bound senior made them pay, ripping an RBI single to left, one of his 2 hits. DuQue led the Bulldogs going 3-for-3.
"It started from the first batter," West Aurora coach John Reeves said. "It seemed like every inning we did something defensively. We're a little disappointed on that. It was kind of uncharacteristic."
Despite its miscues, West Aurora tied the game at 1 on Cory Walden's opposite field home run in the second, and again tied the game at 3 on RBI hits in the fourth from Chris Richter and Kyle Spooner.
Ryan Welter's sacrifice fly in the fourth gave the Bulldogs the lead for good. In the fifth, a two-out error prevented a 1-2-3 inning, then Tyler Lindquist capped Batavia's 4-run outburst with a 2-run double for an 8-3 lead.
Karger did the rest on the mound, allowing just 1 hit over the final 3 innings. He threw 133 pitches in a complete game effort, striking out eight and walking two allowing just 4 hits to improve his perfect record to 9-0.
"When I first came out there I had a little trouble hitting my spots," Karger said. "I was a little shaky. Once I got into a rhythm everything started falling in place."
Karger also shut down West Aurora star Brady Renner, striking him out twice in an 0-for-3 day that snapped Renner's 26-game hitting streak.
Brian Guethle took the loss for West Aurora despite allowing only 1 earned run in 4 2/3 innings. Spooner had 2 hits to lead the Blackhawks.
"We thought we got a pretty good outing out of Brian," Renner said. "But they are a good team. They are a three seed for a reason."
If No. 11 seed St. Charles North upsets No. 6 Willowbrook today, the Bulldogs will see their Tri-Cities and future Upstate Eight rivals on Saturday.
"Our new conference friends," is how Holm described the North Stars. "I have a great deal of respect for (North Stars coach) Todd (Genke). It will be a fun matchup if that will happen."