Kaneland 12, Batavia 11

Time was running out for the Kaneland baseball team.

The Knights had one last inning before their tied Western Sun Conference game against Batavia would be called due to darkness in Maple Park.

Under pressure to complete the game Tuesday, the Knights manufactured the game-winning run and beat rival Batavia, 12-11 in 9 innings in a come-from-behind contest that took over 3 hours to complete.

"We were just looking for any little opening," Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said. "We were busting through the door, and we really took advantage of it tonight…finally, things went our way instead of against us, for once. It was a great battle from our guys."

With the game tied at 11 and two outs in the ninth inning, Jody Henningson doubled to right field. Henningson scored after the No. 2 batter, Cody Crook, reached on a Batavia error.

"We just kept scratching and scratching," Aversa said. "Jody had great hustle out of the box -- he could have very easily said that was a pop up -- but he sprinted out of the box and got to second and in scoring position…it was great baseball on Jody's part and Cody for putting the ball in play when we needed him to."

Henningson was also responsible for tying the game at 11 in the seventh inning. Alex Norman and Mike Pritchard scored after Henningson reached base on another Batavia error with 2 outs. Pritchard's 2-RBI single reduced the Bulldogs' lead to 11-9.

This was the way Kaneland (8-5, 6-4) played in the second half of the game -- chipping away at the lead -- after Batavia scored 9 runs off 8 hits in the fourth inning.

The Knights had a 3-0 lead after three innings, but the Bulldogs (11-5, 7-3) fired back, thanks to 5 consecutive hits -- all with two outs. Joe Scaccia, Alex Beckmann, Brad Brandenburg, Tim Drish, Brian Krolikowski, Mike Sentman and Shane Holl all ended up with RBI in that inning.

"Everything went right," Batavia coach Matt Holm said. "We were hitting the ball hard. We've scored 9, 10 runs in a single inning this season."

Trailing 9-3, Kaneland got itself back in the contest in the fourth after an RBI single from Henningson and in the fifth after Nick Wagner's 3-run home run sliced Batavia's lead to 9-7.

Batavia put up two more runs in the sixth on Beckmann's 2-RBI triple. He finished with 4 hits.

Every starting player on both sides of the lineup recorded at least one hit. The Bulldogs were led by Beckmann and Drish (4 hits) and the Knights were guided by Joe Gura, Jay Levita, Brian Claesson and Henningson, who all finished with 2 hits.

"Our bats spoke for themselves tonight," Aversa said. "(Batavia's) lineup is pretty stacked…they really strung together a lot of runs and hits (in the fourth inning). We are more than capable of doing the exact same thing. I give our guys a lot of credit. They could have easily hung their heads and said, 'It's 9-3, this game is over, this is one of the best teams in the area, let's pack it in now,' but we stuck with it."

Kaneland struck out just once against Batavia starter Jordan Coffey, who pitched for 6 ¿ innings.

"The big thing was we didn't strike out a lot," Henningson said. "We put the ball in play and made (Batavia) make the plays. That's what we had to do, and that's what we did."