Batavia’s Shanahan shuts down Streamwood
Catcher Steve Durham doubled twice in Batavia’s 7-2 win over Streamwood Thursday, drove in two runs, threw out a would-be base stealer, and called most of the pitches in Austin Shanahan’s complete-game gem.
And all those contributions to Batavia’s third straight win over the Sabres don’t include perhaps the most important: his role in settling Shanahan down after a rocky start.
Streamwood leadoff hitter Richie Gorski greeted Shanahan with a triple to start the game and before the Batavia junior righty knew it he was trailing. That turned out to be a good opportunity for Shanahan to visit his pitcher.
“As a catcher you say anything to keep their mind, you want them thinking about the game but at the same time you don’t want them thinking so much they are over-thinking and hurting their pitching,” Durham said. “In a way I’m kind of a psychiatrist out there. I pack a few jokes in my pocket.”
Streamwood (7-12, 3-9) didn’t score again after Jeff Weaver’s RBI single in the first made it 2-0. Shanahan (2-2) finished the game strong, striking out the side in the seventh to finish with 12 strikeouts while allowing 6 hits, 3 walks, 1 earned run and hitting one batter.
“It’s kind of nice to have the wind at your back, add some speed,” Shanahan said of the cool conditions. “You just have to shake it (slow start) off. You can’t have any flaws on the mound mentally.”
Batavia (9-6, 7-3) trailed until scoring four runs in the third off Jeremy Campbell. Fleet-footed Laren Eustace beat out a grounder to first to ignite the rally. After a single from Sam Burnoski and intentional walk to Micah Coffey, Nick Pappas drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-1.
Durham gave Batavia the lead for good with a 2-run double. Billy Zwick made it 4-2 with an RBI groundout.
Batavia added three runs in the fifth. Coffey doubled and scored on Zwick’s single. Danny Ritchason plated the final run with an infield single.
“Nice to have some extra-base hits today,” Batavia coach Matt Holm said. “Burnoski is getting hot now, Steve Durham is getting hot now especially on a cold day because normally on a cold day we don’t hit at all.”
Shanahan’s fastball, which he said he throws between 80 and 85 miles an hour, combined with a sharp curve and occasional change was too much for the Sabres. Streamwood coach Steve Diversey switched his batting order, moving normal No. 3 hitter Gorski to the leadoff spot among other moves.
“We mixed up the lineup to try to get a bounce in the step,” Diversey said. “We’re a struggling club this year. There’s nothing to hide. We graduated a lot of players. We’re young and it shows. We’re just trying to get these guys to have some fun and not press to do everything.”