St. Charles East does the little things to beat Bartlett
Even with the wind blowing out to right field Friday, the St. Charles East baseball team played small ball to earn a victory.
The Saints had 15 hits, but only one for extra bases, in an 11-5 win over host Bartlett to complete a sweep of the two-game Upstate Eight Conference series.
"We did the little things," Saints coach David Haskins said. "We noticed we were successful with that (Thursday against Bartlett). We tried to put pressure on the defense."
East (10-4, 4-2) had 1 double and 14 singles. Three of the singles were bunt singles and two more were infield singles. The Saints also had 5 stolen bases and took advantage of several wild pitches to take an extra base.
The Saints scored three times in both the first and second innings to take a 6-0 lead. Johnny Erickson had an RBI single and Tony Rallo had a two-run single in the first. In the second, a TJ Travis sacrifice fly brought in a run. A throwing error by Bartlett and a wild pitch allowed two more runs to score.
The Hawks (6-7, 2-4) got back into the game with a three-run bottom of the second. Phil Leonard led off with a home run to right-center. John Fleming and Ryan Yore added RBI. Leonard doubled to bring in a run and Mark Morse brought in Leonard in the third as Bartlett got within a run at 6-5.
But that was all the Hawks would get as East turned to Robert Wendt. The right-hander came in from center field to take over on the mound in the fourth. He struck out the side in the fourth with two runners on and again struck out the side in the seventh to pick up the victory. Wendt (2-1) struck out nine in his four innings.
"He was very sharp," Haskins said. "He throws on both sides of the plate. He had great command of all three pitches."
"I'm not happy with our approach or mindset, whatever you want to call it, going up to the plate," Hawks coach Russ Lorenz said. "We're not being aggressive."
The Saints got three insurance runs in fourth and two more in sixth. Erickson, Ryan O'Dell and Rallo each had 2 RBI for East. O'Dell added 3 hits. Luke Rojas and Wendt each had 2 hits.
Greg Partyka, Leonard and Morse all had a pair of hits for Bartlett. Alex Raver (0-2) suffered the loss, allowing 9 runs in four innings.