Baseball: Weather gets best of Elgin Academy, Westminster Christian
The 30-minute timer to restart Monday's weather-delayed baseball game between Elgin Academy and Westminster Christian reset with each rumble of thunder until the clock finally ran out on America's favorite untimed sport.
Deeming a restart would come too late in the evening, the nonconference meeting between the Elgin private schools was suspended with host Westminster Christian leading 7-2 in the bottom of the third inning with runners at first and second and two outs.
The game will be resumed on a date to be determined.
For Elgin Academy (13-2), which on April 11 won a 4-3 decision over Westminster Christian (8-13), the suspension delayed an opportunity to reaffirm what the Hilltoppers firmly believe: they can compete with the Class 1A establishment in their third year since reviving the sport.
"We've been at it for a few years," Elgin Academy junior leadoff man Ian Wilson said. "Now our core group are all juniors and we've picked up some more players. That's what the program's all about: building off young talent."
The suspended game negated a chance for the Warriors to exact revenge for the earlier 1-run loss. Westminster seemed motivated to make amends from the start, scoring 4 runs in the first inning, 3 in the second and threatening again in the third.
"We lost a couple of weeks ago to these guys, so we came in with a really good mental aspect," said Westminster leadoff man Ian Merlak, who went 2-for-3 with a leadoff triple and scored twice. "We wanted to really fight hard and bring the bats. We've been working in the cages a lot. We really wanted to win this game. Unfortunately, the rain's getting the best of us."
Tyler Schoemann, Matthew Schulenburg, Mason Runkel, Theron Dorsey, Justin Rasmussen and Nick DeMaira all joined Merlak in the hit column for Westminster. Dorsey drove in 2 runs with a first-inning double.
The Hilltoppers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Jonathan Cruz's sacrifice fly scored Ian Wilson. Elgin Academy's second run came courtesy of freshman Kevin Kuykendall's double. Kuykendall was 2-for-2 with a double.