Batavia, Geneva split doubleheader
As Batavia center fielder Robbie Bowman raced back to the fence and leapt high to try to bring back a home run ball Saturday in Geneva, Dan Berendt wasn’t sure what to think.
“I knew it wasn’t gone right away, it was either close to the fence or over,” Berendt said. “When he jumped up there I was really scared.”
Most of the fans at Geneva also couldn’t tell at first whether or not Bowman had the ball in his glove. Then the umpire gave the home run signal, Berendt broke into his first home run trot this year, and the Vikings were on their way to a 5-3 victory.
Geneva (18-6, 11-6) needed the win to salvage a split. Batavia’s Austin Shanahan quieted Geneva’s bats with a complete game 4-1 win in the opener.
Geneva’s Game 2 starter Jordan Touro said watching the Bulldog hitters in that first game turned out to be an advantage in the first time this year he’s pitched the nightcap of a doubleheader.
“You sit there and watch the whole game and see their tendencies and everything and then you go out there you feel like you’ve already thrown a game against them,” Touro said. “You feel you have the upper-hand.
“I noticed they are all sitting fastball. I feel you give them an off-speed pitch they are leaning. Off-speed first, sneak a fastball in and get the advantage.”
Batavia (12-12, 10-8) didn’t score an earned run against Touro. He struck out three, walked three and allowed 6 hits, all singles.
Catcher Steve Durham had three of those Batavia hits including a ball that got away from Geneva’s right fielder and allowed Batavia’s first run to score in the fourth.
Micah Coffey, who had a big day for Batavia in both games while playing all over the field, drove in the other two runs with a two-out, two-run single in the seventh. Touro then retired Austin Higgins on a fly to left to end the game and leave the Vikings three games behind St. Charles East (18-7, 15-3) in the UEC River race.
“There’s a lot of pressure knowing it’s a big game and you need to win it,” Touro said. “I had no doubt in us. I didn’t think we’d lose two in a row.”
Like most coaches, Batavia’s Matt Holm is trying to find enough pitching to get through this busy stretch of the season. It’s been especially hard for Holm who has been missing two of his top arms in Nick Pappas and Higgins.
The Bulldogs brought up sophomore Colby Green for his first varsity start in Game 2. Green stranded three runners while keeping Geneva scoreless in the first two innings.
But Green caught a bad break to start the third when Andy Francis beat out an infield single and accidentally stepped on Green’s pitching hand while Green was covering first.
Later that inning Mitch Endriukaitis drove in Geneva’s first run with a two-out single between short and third. A passed ball brought in Matt Williams, and then Berendt launched his home run to center to put Geneva ahead 4-0.
Green worked a scoreless fourth and got two outs in the fifth before Luke Horton finished the game.
“To have Colby come out and throw as good as he did the second game I was real pleased,” Holm said. “At our place that’s a fly ball we catch (the 2-run homer) and it’s a 2-run inning. Home games make a difference. It was real gutsy he came back (from the collision).”
Geneva added an insurance run in the sixth when Matt Brandys singled in Luke Polishak who also had singled.
The Vikings turned in two stellar defensive plays late in the game, the first by Francis at third on Horton’s smash, and then Bobby Hess in left leaping to take a potential extra-base hit away from Bowman.
In Game 1, Batavia got to Geneva starter Drew White with three first-inning runs. That turned out to be more than enough for Shanahan (4-3) who continued his impressive junior season.
“Today I felt really great,” Shanahan said. “I was spotting everything pretty well. It just felt awesome. The fastball was going pretty hard and the curve ball was dropping in there perfectly. I think I had them off-balance the whole time.”
Shanahan struck out Williams on a change and used a hard inside fastball to pop Williams up in his first two at-bats. The future NIU football player put Geneva on the scoreboard with a solo home run in the sixth. That came just after Williams, now with an area-best 6 homers, had fouled a pitch off his foot on the previous pitch.
“I left a change-up up and he went up and got it,” Shanahan said. “He’s a pretty good hitter but this fence is a little bit short. Give him some credit for hitting that pitch.”
The Williams homer turned out to be the only run Shanahan allowed, and Coffey kept Batavia ahead by 3 runs when he doubled in the fifth and scored on a Geneva error.
Coffey said he made an adjustment and lowered his hands which have been producing big results at the plate including a 4-hit day Saturday.
“I was seeing the ball really well today,” Coffey said. “Ever since then (lowering his hands) I’ve been hitting really well. I’m trying not to think about a whole lot and go up there and start hacking. Not take a lot of pitches for strikes, get up there and take a hack at it. I figured I hadn’t been hitting too well so I figured I might as well change something and get a little roll going and it ended up working.”
Geneva gets a day off Sunday before starting a key week Monday with the final game of a three-game series at St. Charles North. Then comes the finale of its series with Batavia before a three-game set Thursday and Saturday against River leader St. Charles East.
“I thought we struggled at the plate a little today,” said Geneva coach Matt Hahn whose players had prom Saturday night. “I didn’t think our approach was great. Some of that might be the emotional win yesterday (over St. Charles North), I’m sure they subconsciously had prom in their mind. They are 17-, 18-year-olds. It’s such a long conference season, 25 games, one loss or win does not make or break the season.
“By the end of the (upcoming) week we’ll know if we’re still in it or not. If we want to keep ourselves in position it’s in our hands. We have to take care of business.”