Batavia caps comeback week with 6-run 7th at Oswego
It will be a long time before Batavia goes through an 18-hour stretch like they did from Friday night to Saturday morning.
The "fun" included a broken down bus, rain and lightning delays and an impromptu game of wiffle ball. But it most definitely was fun, because those 18 hours also included two come-from-behind wins.
After rallying from 3-0 down to beat Sycamore 4-3 in 9 innings Friday, Batavia scored 6 runs in the seventh Saturday to win 8-5 at Oswego.
Jordan Coffey delivered the key hit, a 2-run single in the seventh inning to tie the game.
"It's kind of fun because we had a nice ninth inning win and then we got to play some wiffle ball, then be at batting practice at 7:30 (this morning)," Coffey said. "It's been a long 12, 15 hours but we're kind of riding high. We're on a hot streak still."
Brian Krolikowski started the fireworks with a 3-run home run to tie Friday's game at Sycamore. That win kept Batavia (13-5, 8-1) a game ahead of Geneva in the Western Sun race.
Their bus broke down on the way back to Batavia, and the Bulldogs didn't get home until 9:45 p.m.
Only two batters came to the plate Saturday against Oswego (5-10) before the rains came. After about an hour delay play resumed but the Bulldogs again fell behind, just like they did throughout this week's series against Sycamore.
"Early in the game we were free swinging at everything," Batavia coach Matt Holm said. "We went up the last couple innings trying to look at a couple more pitches and get the right pitches."
Batavia scored its 6 runs in the seventh inning on 4 hits and 4 Oswego errors.
The mistakes included a dropped pop between the pitcher and catcher. When the Panthers hung their heads after that miscue, Coffey raced home from third to score the winning run.
"It was nice to catch them off guard at the end," Coffey said. "I was watching them. The third baseman put his head down, both those kids (the pitcher and catcher) put their head down, started walking to the mound a little bit so I just took off."
"One of the things about Jordan is he is a very heads-up baseball player," Holm said. "He knows his stuff inside and out."
Just like he did Thursday against Sycamore, Chris Wood came on in relief to earn the win. He's now 4-0 this year.
"Late-inning heroics have been our team's goal this year and we've really come through," Wood said.
"I was just trying to find my spots. My curveball was working, changeup was working pretty good, diving in. I'm not a power pitcher. Got to keep them off-balance."
Oswego coach Chris Neitzel was disappointed with the 12 runners the Panthers left on base that allowed Batavia to stay within striking distance heading to the seventh inning.
"When you play a team like Batavia that is a little bigger school than us, we're out of depth," Neitzel said. "They are a real good hitting team. For six innings we played really good baseball. The seventh inning, not so much."