Baseball: Geneva bounces back at St. Charles East
There are no must-win high school baseball games in April.
After suffering a pair of tough-luck losses to St. Charles East on consecutive days, Geneva (6-5, 3-2) avoided a 3-game sweep with its 6-2 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over the Saints (8-4, 3-1) Thursday afternoon in St. Charles.
It might not have been a must-win situation for the Vikings but it was an important one.
"There's no question we needed it," Vikings coach Brad Wendell said. "We got punched in the gut two days in a row and were hurt by our own mistakes."
Junior Dom Guido went 2 for 4 with a pair of RBI, igniting the Vikings' 2-run second and 4-run fifth innings.
Guido and junior catcher Josh Rose led off the second with back-to-back singles before Graham Owen's slow roller between the mound and first base went for an infield hit to load the bases with nobody out.
Niko DiLeo and Jason Peruba followed with productive at-bats, each driving in runs on groundouts to give Geneva an early 2-0 advantage.
After the Saints cut the lead to 2-1 on Pat Griffin's 2-out RBI single in the fourth, the Vikings put the game away with a 4-run fifth that was highlighted by Guido's 2-run double to deep left and Jeremy Davis' RBI sacrifice fly.
The inning began with Peruba's single and included back-to-back bunt singles from Nathan Dewey and Dylan Baer (2 for 3) - the former coming when the Saints' pitcher slipped on the wet grass attempting to charge the ball.
"We executed some bunts and the wet turf hurt them a little today," said Wendell. "Things went our way today."
"The last couple games we were struggling a bit at the plate," said Guido. "We were not getting deep in counts and not hitting first-pitch strikes. I think we did that a lot today - hitting some early pitches."
Winning pitcher Sean Sinisko, who tossed a pair of scoreless innings against the Saints on Tuesday, relied on an excellent change-up during Thursday's 5-inning start, allowing a run on 2 hits with 6 strikeouts.
"My change was working very well," said the junior left-hander. "The thought process was the same - I was just trying to attack. It was a very good pick-me-up game."
"He's a good pitcher and we hope to use him a bunch," said Wendell, who used juniors Tyler Venditti and Cullen Geary in relief. "I'm really proud of our pitchers. We threw three guys against their No. 1 (Tuesday) and they all did well. Noah (Davison) tossed a no-hitter through six (innings) last night. What else can you ask of them?"
St. Charles East, which added a sixth-inning run on Niko Klebosits' RBI single, managed just 7 runs and 9 hits during the series yet emerged with a pair of victories.
"We were fortunate to walk out of here with two wins based on what our offense did," said Saints coach Len Asquini. "Saying that, we pitched well and played good defense the first two games.
"They found a few spots (today). They had a swinging bunt. That's all part of it. If that's going to happen, then we have to score. We did not answer that today."