Dundee-Crown slips by Larkin
With eight of the nine hitters from last year’s batting order back in the fold, the Dundee-Crown baseball team should have little trouble scoring runs this season.
The Chargers demonstrated in the seventh inning of their 5-4 victory over Larkin in the season opener for both teams Friday they can also manufacture important runs when necessary.
The nonconference game in Carpentersville was tied 4-4 with nobody on base and two away in the bottom of the seventh inning when D-C leadoff man Scott Nowicke was given the take sign on the first two offerings from Larkin reliever Cody Wahl. Both pitches were called balls, and Nowicke eventually drew a 5-pitch walk to keep his team in business.
But he still had work to do.
“I knew with two outs I was probably going to have to steal second,” Nowicke said.
With left-handed hitter Jake Romano at the plate, Nowicke took off for second and slid in safely under the tag. Romano then cued a nubber off the end of his bat toward shortstop. The ball was fielded cleanly by Larkin’s shortstop, but his throw to first bounced 10 feet short and skipped to the fence for an error that allowed Nowicke to trot home with the winning run.
The late steal mirrored D-C’s aggressive baserunning approach throughout the game, though it didn’t always pay off. In one inning alone the Chargers were thrown out trying to take an extra base on a single and trying to advance on a delayed steal.
“We have a lot of guys, especially our top of the order, that are going be able to steal some bases, move runners, that type of stuff,” D-C coach Jon Sawyer said. “And that’s what you have to do in tight games. Early in the year you can’t sit back and wait for home runs.”
The crucial error was the third for Larkin, which allowed 4 unearned runs in the game. The Royals led 2-1 in the third inning until a low but catchable throw to first base on a routine grounder got by for an error, allowing Jimmy Griffin to score the tying run.
Nick Spagnola compounded Larkin’s misery by following with a 2-run single up the middle for a 4-2 Dundee-Crown lead. Larkin starting pitcher Miguel Villafane allowed 4 runs (1 earned) on 6 hits. He walked 2 and struck out 2 in 4 innings of work.
The Royals pulled within 4-3 in the fourth inning when Victor Saldana doubled and later scored on Wahl’s groundball.
Larkin then tied the game in the fifth inning. Niko Morado walked, moved to third on a double by senior Trevor Whitehead and scored on a balk by Dundee-Crown starting pitcher Mike Lodi (5 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 K).
Sensing an opportunity to retake the lead, Larkin coach Matt Esterino called for the squeeze bunt with Drew Shore at the plate. However, Shore couldn’t contact Lodi’s outside pitch and Whitehead was tagged out in a rundown.
“I thought after the balk he was going to lay one over, and I wanted to get a squeeze down and steal that run and get the lead,” Esterino said. “It was way outside, so I’ll take the blame for that one.”
Larkin ran its way out of another opportunity in the sixth. With runners on first and third and two out, the pickle play backfired when courtesy runner Austin Royce was tagged out in a rundown between first and second before courtesy runner Nate Woodruff could cross the plate with the go-ahead run.
The relievers became the pitchers of record. Dundee-Crown junior left-hander Mike Hazelhurst had 3 strikeouts in 2 scoreless innings to earn the win. Wahl, who retired 8 straight D-C batters before walking Nowicke in the seventh, took the hard-luck the loss.
Larkin grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a 2-run home run to left by junior Kyle Newquist, who turned on a 1-0 pitch from Lodi. He said the Royals will bounce back.
“It’s the first game and we made a couple of mistakes,” Newquist said. “Hopefully, we can work the jitters out and get back on the right track and start winning baseball games.”