St. Charles East sweeps Larkin, stays in River race
The baseball race in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division has been extended by a day.
St. Charles East collected 15 hits in completing a three-game sweep of Larkin Thursday afternoon at home.
With their 12-4 victory the Saints will have one final chance to tie Batavia for league supremacy with the continuation of a game against archrival St. Charles North Friday afternoon.
The game, a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth with two outs, will resume at St. Charles North.
The Saints (21-10, 18-6) are a half-game behind Batavia in their quest to gain a share of the title.
St. Charles East hit visiting Larkin with a pair of four-spots to take command of the teams’ regular-season scheduled finale.
The Saints’ Brian Sobieski, Ben Smith, Anthony Sciarrino and Nicholas Erickson all had run-scoring base hits to stake the team to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
Larkin (10-19, 7-18) halved its deficit with a pair in its fourth, but St. Charles East would put the game away in its next at-bat.
On a day when their 10 fellow seniors were recognized, the Saints’ Sean Dunne and Joe Hoscheit had back-to-back 2-run doubles to give St. Charles East an 8-2 lead.
“I was just trying to hit the ball hard, get some runs in and get some comfort,” Hoscheit said.
“It was nice to get some insurance runs,” Dunne added.
Larkin had ample opportunities against St. Charles East starting southpaw Nick Huskisson, but the Royals were unable to get the clutch hit when needed.
The Royals stranded the bases loaded in the third inning.
“We helped them a couple of times,” Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. “I didn’t like our approach (at the plate) from the get-go today. The effort was there.”
Larkin would close to within 8-4 in its half of fifth as Rob Bond had the Royals’ lone extra-base hit to frame the sequence.
But St. Charles East, just like the fourth, added one in the fifth and three more in the sixth on a day when the bats came alive in abundance.
“We got into a little rhythm offensively,” St. Charles East coach Len Asquini said. “It was great to see that again.”