Baseball: Prospect, St. Charles East settle for tie

It wasn't the end result anybody wanted.

Darkness prevailed during Wednesday afternoon's nonconference baseball game between Prospect and St. Charles East that eventually ended in a 2-2 deadlock in St. Charles.

Limited to just 1 base hit - a 3rd-inning single by Ben Testo - through the first 6 innings by Prospect pitcher Matt McAleer, the Saints (4-1-1) pushed a pair of runs across in the bottom of the seventh before the umpires decided to call the game after a conference with the respective coaches near home plate.

"No one likes a tie but it's one of those things where we put ourselves in the situation to win a ballgame against a real good team," said Prospect coach Ross Giusti.

Sophomore Kyle Hayes smacked a towering solo home run that wrapped around the left-field foul pole leading off the seventh, cutting the Knights' lead in half.

"It was a get-me-over fastball and he just killed it," said McAleer, who struck out 5 and walked 2, including one intentional over 7 innings.

Luke Matheny reached on a 1-out error and took second on a wild pitch before Nick Schumann's infield single and stolen bases left runners on second and third for pinch-hitter Drew Parrine, who drew an intentional walk to load the bases for Testo.

After taking the first strike, Testo laid down a perfectly executed suicide squeeze bunt to the right side of the infield, driving in Matheny with the tying run.

"We practice bunts a lot," said Testo. "It was a fastball outside so I just put it down the first-base line."

"It was great getting it (the bunt) down there - it was a tough spot to do that," said Saints coach Len Asquini. "I was real happy for Ben to get that down to tie it up for us."

While Testo was tagged out on his way to first base, Schumann tried to come all the way from second base with the winning run but was easily pegged out at the plate to end the inning.

"We wanted to tie it up with the squeeze - that was the intention and then maybe we could get another," said Asquini. "We really needed that throw to first to get that second one in there. It was aggressive."

The late 2-run rally helped take Saints senior starting pitcher Nick Manthei off the hook as the right-handed tossed 6 strong innings, allowing 2 runs (1 earned) on 5 hits with a pair of walks and 5 strikeouts.

"He deserved a little better," said Asquini. "We were a little inept there for six innings offensively."

Hayes' second home run of the season helped jump-start the Saints' offense in the seventh.

"It was great to see Kyle lay into one," said Asquini.

Prospect grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third when Jacob Kiel doubled and scored on an error.

In the sixth, the Knights upped their lead to 2-0 on Tyler Priessing's 2-out RBI single to right-center.

"For us, it's a moral victory," said Giusti. "We've got a young group of kids here so to come out here and play hard against a quality program should give these kids some confidence."

Giusti also was pleased with McAleer's mound outing.

"I couldn't be more proud of Matt's performance," said the coach. "He was working ahead all day."