Dundee-Crown sweeps Jacobs

Dundee-Crown first baseman Kirk Hanselmann likes to give leadoff hitter Scott Nowicke a hard time about his home run hitting ability.

Hanselmann insists that every dinger Nowicke hits is into the wind.

Nowicke got a double dose of ribbing Saturday.

The senior homered in each of the Chargers’ games against Jacobs and led an overall strong offensive effort by D-C as it took 11-1 and 16-4 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division victories.

Nowicke finished with 4 of the Chargers’ combined 23 hits, including his fourth and fifth home runs of the season. The offensive output came after Dundee-Crown (10-8, 7-3) was no hit on Wednesday against Crystal Lake South.

“We’re a real streaky team,” said Nowicke, who finished with 5 home runs last season. “The ball was looking like a melon today.”

Jacobs (3-10, 2-7) allowed 17 hits in the second game, including 5 extra-base hits. Nowicke led the game off with a homer to right field and Jake Romano doubled and then scored to give the Chargers a 2-0 lead.

“(Nowicke) has been swinging really, really well all year,” Chargers’ coach Jon Sawyer said. “You don’t expect (leadoff) guys to hit like he did today, but I’m not surprised.”

Jacobs’ leadoff hitter Mark Self returned the favor with a leadoff homer, but D-C pitcher Mike Lodi (2-2) would not allow another run until Dundee-Crown had an 11-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth.

“We planned on coming in here and winning both games,” Golden Eagles’ coach Erik Kehoe said. “(After the first game) we said we need to come out hitting and that didn’t happen.”

Dundee-Crown scored 4 runs off 5 hits in the fifth inning and then another 5 runs off 3 hits in the sixth to end the game. Shortstop Steve Schwartz (2 runs, 2 RBI) had an RBI double in the fifth and then drew a walk to score Erik Brewer in the sixth.

Hanselmann went 3-for-5 with 4 RBI in the game.

The Chargers needed just 5 innings in their 11-1 win during the first game.

Despite Self doubling and then scoring to put the Golden Eagles up 1-0, Chargers’ pitcher Mike Hazelhurst wasn’t rocked.

The junior entered the game 2-1 with a 0.41 ERA in 23 innings pitched and showed his stuff. Hazelhurst would allow just 3 hits over the next 4 innings while striking out four.

Even though Hazelhurst put his team down 1-0, he felt confident in the bats behind him.

“Our offense is really good,” he said. “I knew what they could do. I have confidence in our offense.”