ACC comes back to beat St. Edward
Aurora Central Catholic became the second straight Suburban Christian Conference opponent to overcome an early lead by the St. Edward baseball team.
The Green Wave jumped to a 3-0 advantage in the first inning, but the Chargers chipped away with single runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings and scored an unearned run against St. Edward starting pitcher Jacob Koehring in the seventh to win 4-3 at Wing Park in Elgin Monday.
The victory was the first in the SCC play for Aurora Central, which improved to 8-15, 1-9 in the Gold Division. It also marked the first win of the season for sophomore starting pitcher Mike Fidler (1-4), who went the distance.
“That felt pretty good,” said ACC senior Matt Czerak, who scored the winning run. “We needed that one.”
Czerak led off the ACC seventh with a single. Junior cleanup hitter Phil Schuetz then hit a groundball to third base, but the throw to second for the force out was in the dirt and both runners were safe.
While the Green Wave talked strategy in a meeting on the mound, ACC head coach Eric Fulara conferenced with both runners and told them to execute the double steal if they got a good jump. They did, which put runners at second and third with no outs.
Koehring induced a groundball to second base with the infield in, which held the runners in place. He then issued an intentional walk to Shawn Soris, who was 2-for-3 to that point, setting up the force play at the plate.
ACC No. 7 hitter Steve Belovich was next up. Czerak, the runner at third base, slipped and fell on a passed ball during the at-bat and was unable to score.
“It was like a slip and slide over there,” Czerak said of the base path.
He was able to race home moments later — despite another minor slip on the damp field — when Belovich sent a groundball to shortstop. The throw to the plate was a bit wide and pulled the St. Edward catcher’s foot off the plate as Czerak slid home with the go-ahead run.
In its last outing on Friday, St. Edward (16-14, 6-7) built a 7-0 lead against St. Francis only to lose 7-0.
“It’s tough to swallow, this and the St. Francis game,” St. Edward coach Tim Dovichi said. “We had the pitching, but you still have to hit, you still have to execute.”
Koehring pitched well enough to win. He allowed 4 runs (2 earned), struck out 6 and walked 2, including the intentional walk.
“For some reason we’ve been struggling with the lead,” Koehring said. “We’ve got to keep after it and finish. We have a tendency to let them come back.”
Fidler was touched for 3 runs in the first inning when St. Edward scored on a two-out single by Tighe Koehring and a 2-run single by Jake Tierney. But Fidler kept the Green Wave from extending their lead by tossing 6 scoreless innings.
Through 4 innings, Fidler had walked 5 and hit a batter, however, he issued no free passes in his final 3 innings of work and struck out the final three hitters of the game with the potential tying run on first. “I just couldn’t find my control in the first and second innings,” Fidler said. “I finally found my spot. I tried slowing it down. I was trying to throw too hard.”
The teams conclude their 2-game series today in Aurora.