Larkin pounds away on Elgin under the lights

Larkin senior Alex Wahl described the thrill of competing in the crosstown series against Elgin under the lights at Trout Park Monday night.

"It's cool to build off all the energy, all the people here," Wahl said of a crowd of approximately 250. "That kind of pumped me up a little bit. I just went out there and swung."

Swung twice, in fact.

Wahl belted a 3-run home run in the top of the first inning that gave Larkin the lead, then he launched a 2-run blast in his next at-bat in the second inning to cap a 6-run rally. Wahl's second home run of the game and the season staked Larkin to a 9-0 lead en route to a 12-1 Upstate Eight Conference victory over the Maroons in five innings. Afterward, he hoped the 5-RBI night would serve as a breakout.

"It felt good, especially since I've been in a slump," Wahl said. "It felt good to get out of it like this. I was hitting .215 going into this game. Hopefully, I can get out of it with this, build on it a little bit."

Like Wahl, Larkin pitcher Scott Harm (1-2) tapped into the Trout Park energy. The senior right-hander allowed 1 run on 3 hits and struck out 8 in 5 innings to lift the Royals (3-7-1, 2-1).

"When you get to Trout Park under the lights and you've got all these fans here and everything, everyone was pumped up for the game," Harm said. "It was great,"

However, that same energy may have short-circuited Elgin (0-6, 0-3). The Royals put 9 earned runs on the board in 2 innings against pitcher D.J. Riggio (0-2). The junior allowed 5 hits, walked 3 and hit a batter.

"I think he was a little too fired up," Elgin coach David Foerster said. "It ends up where he overthrows and fights himself because he's not throwing strikes. Then you look up and it's 9-0. It just snowballed on him and it was maybe a matter of him being too amped up. He couldn't find it."

Larkin took a 4-0 lead in the second inning when Reid Ellis was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. One out later, junior Victor Saldana laced a 3-run double to the base of the right-field wall. Wahl then worked the count full and hit his second home run on an off-speed pitch.

The Royals added 3 unearned runs in the fifth against junior David Penaloza, helped by 4 of Elgin's 6 errors. Otherwise, the junior pitched 2 scoreless innings. But the damage was already done.

"Early in the year we were down so much early in games. It felt nice to get ahead," Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. "But if we think this is going to happen (today), we've got another thing coming."

The teams will complete the two-game series at Trout Park today at 7 p.m.