St. Charles East sweeps Batavia

It may not have been a perfectly clean sweep but St. Charles East baseball coach Len Asquini wasn't about to complain.

After a combination of 3 infield errors and a balk allowed Batavia (1-5, 0-3) to score 3 sixth-inning runs and take a 5-4 lead, the Saints (5-2, 3-0) answered with a 6-run bottom half of the frame on the way to their 10-5 victory Friday afternoon in St. Charles.

"We made mistakes that pushed in runs," said Asquini of his team's 4 errors that led to 4 of the Bulldogs' 5 runs. "It was nice to see us offensively overcome that. Earlier last week, we didn't do that because we only scored two or three runs."

St. Charles East sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth that began inauspiciously when its leadoff hitter struck out against Batavia sophomore right-hander Glenn Albanese (0-2).

Back-to-back infield singles by Jimmy Dale and Max Powers and a fielder's choice on Jake Milosch's bunt attempt loaded the bases for Corbin Marucco, whose single to short right tied the game at 5-5.

"With the drawn-in infield, I was just looking to punch a ball through," said Marucco, who had an RBI single in the fourth and was hit by a pitch and scored the Saints' first run of the game in the third.

Reid Olson greeted Bulldogs reliever Nick Rogalski with a 2-run single as the Saints grabbed a 7-5 lead. Jake Asquini's RBI groundout made it 8-5. An infield error accounted for the Saints' 9th run and Austin Regelbrugge's run-producing single extended the lead to 10-5 and capped a 6-run, 5-hit inning.

"When I came into the dugout the guys said, 'Coach, we just had nine quality at-bats in a row,'" said Saints coach Len Asquini. "That was awesome. I don't know if we've ever had nine in a row like that."

Junior Stephen Podany (2-0) picked up the win in relief of senior starter Kyle Cook, who allowed 2 runs on 4 hits with fanned 5 in 5 innings.

"This is big for our guys to be able to come from behind a couple times during a game, take a commanding lead and get it done," said Asquini, whose team swept the opening 3-game series in Upstate Eight Conference River Division action.

"A sweep is huge to start it off for us, especially against Batavia and the guys they've got on the mound. I don't know if anybody else is going to be able to do that with what they have on the mound."

Albanese walked 2 and fanned 6 for the Bulldogs, who suffered their fifth consecutive loss.

"We battled for as long as we could there and then things kind of spiraled on us," said Bulldogs assistant coach Alex Beckmann. "If we make a couple plays, we're right in that game which is encouraging for us.

"The record doesn't show it but we've been in just about every game and our pitching is going to carry us."

Batavia head coach Matt Holm was not in attendance as he spent the afternoon at a local hospital after 2 student-athletes were injured in a tarp accident just prior to the bus departure for the varsity game.

"It was very scary," said Beckmann.