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Batavia routs Bartlett

The bottom of the fourth inning was like a scene out of a horror novel for the Bartlett baseball team.

Batavia was technically the home team in the schools' Upstate Eight Conference crossover game as the Bulldogs' home field is having its dugouts reconstructed.

Alex Curtis' debut for Bartlett was unraveled as a brief but punishing rain, accompanied by dropping temperatures, did not make his task any easier.

Batavia erupted for 6 runs on only 3 hits in the inning to seize command in an abbreviated 10-0 victory in six innings Tuesday afternoon in Bartlett.

“It's a lot easier when you have the energy,” Batavia senior Jeremy Schoessling said. “(Monday in a loss to Glenbard North) we were going down 1-2-3.”

Batavia junior southpaw Evan Acosta was masterful in gaining his second win on the infant season.

Bartlett (1-3, 0-1) could manage only a pair of singles: Tripp Paris' clean single in the third and an infield hit by Jake Barrutia in the sixth.

“Evan has been lights out,” Batavia coach Matt Holm said. “He's getting all the accolades he deserves.”

Batavia (5-1) could have collectively produced some items for sale with its ability to manufacture runs.

Taking advantage of virtually every Bartlett miscue, Batavia used everything from dropped third strikes, wild pitches, bases-loaded walks, a balk and a two-out infield error to score runs.

Laren Eustace delivered Steve Busby in the second inning to double the Bulldogs' lead to 2-0, but the floodgates opened in the fourth.

Dino Simoncelli, Busby, Eustace and Reagan McReynolds all walked and scored at some point in the 6-run outburst.

Micah Coffey, the Bulldogs' Minnesota-bound senior leader, had a 2-run single the other way.

Kyle Niemiec concluded the scoring by plating Coffey with a two-out single.

“It helped me out big with those 8 runs (through the first four innings),” Acosta said.

“Everything was working well today.”

“It was Alex's first varsity start,” Bartlett coach Chris Pemberton said. “He probably had a few butterflies. It is the first conference game.”

Eustace scored an unearned run to bring the Bulldogs to the brink of the slaughter rule in the bottom of the fifth.

The Hawks' wild pitch with two outs in the sixth seemed to portend badly based on what had transpired throughout the game.

The dropped foul ball that extended the final Busby at-bat seemed even more telling.

Sure enough, Busby laced a single to left center two pitches later to end the game.

“They all count,” Holm said of the Upstate Eight crossover games in the division standings. “The crossovers, one-game (series), are important. You have to get as many as you can.”

“Our goal is to build toward the end of the season,” Pemberton said.

  Batavia's Jeremy Schoessling rounds third base around Bartlett's Trevor Svetic and heads home to score a run in the second inning on Tuesday, April 8. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Batavia's Kyle Niemiec stops short on his way to third base to head back to second base safely in the first inning vs. Bartlett on Tuesday, April 8. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Bartlett's Mike Wick bunts the ball in the first inning vs. Batavia on Tuesday, April 8. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Batavia's Bartlett's Mike Wick slides back safely to first base a fraction of a second before the ball hits the hit of Batavia's Micah Coffey in the third inning on Tuesday, April 8. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
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