Streamwood bounces back, blows past Elgin

The Streamwood baseball team fed its appetite for runs Tuesday.

Coming off Saturday's doubleheader loss to St. Charles North, in which the Sabres scored just twice in 14 innings, they erupted for 7 runs in the first inning and 10 more in the third to breeze to an 18-6 victory at Elgin.

"Only scoring 2 runs on Saturday was kind of upsetting," Streamwood shortstop Nate Pearson said. "We came out here wanting to swing, wanting to score some runs and we did."

Streamwood (14-10, 8-6) collected 15 hits, including 6 for extra bases. Josh Harris had the biggest blast of them all: the lefty pulled a grand slam home run with two outs in the first inning against Elgin starting pitcher Alex Doty (2-3), which put his team ahead 6-0. It was the junior's fourth home run of the season.

"We knew (Doty) was pretty much their ace," Harris said. "We just wanted to get off quick, start swinging at first pitches. We had a really good first inning, and I guess that's all it took."

The loss was the sixth straight for Elgin (4-16, 3-11) and its fourth straight loss by 12 runs or more. However, the young Maroons never cashed it in. They responded to Streamwood's 7-run first inning with a leadoff home run to left field by junior Javier Cárdenas. It was the first home run of the season for the Maroons.

Elgin scored again in the second inning on a single by Zach Frerichs (1-for-3, 2 RBI). The Maroons scratched out 2 runs in the fourth inning and they added 2 more runs in the fifth, keyed by Drew Bloomquist's basehit.

"It would have been real easy for us to just hang our heads after two or three innings, especially the way it's been going," Elgin coach David Foerster said. "But to our credit we played hard the whole day. I can't have any complaints after that regardless of the score. If we play and give an honest effort, I can live with it."

Streamwood pitcher Mike Diebold (2-3) held Elgin to 2 runs on 4 hits in 2 innings of work and reliever Bobby Post allowed 4 runs on 6 hits in 3 innings.

Pearson went 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI, Richie Gorski was 2-for-4 with a 4 RBI and a 3-run double and Patrick Manning went 2-for-2, drove in 2 runs and scored three times for Streamwood.

Bloomquist was 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored for Elgin.

The teams continue their series today at Streamwood at 4:30 p.m. with the finale scheduled for Thursday at Trout Park in Elgin at 7 p.m.