Baseball: St. Charles East downs West Aurora for 6th straight win
Scoring some early runs on a dry day is a positive thing.
Scoring some early runs on a rainy day with an unfavorable weather forecast is even more important.
St. Charles East (15-6) put up a 3-spot in the bottom of the first inning and added a pair of insurance runs in the fifth before the umpires called the game due to unplayable conditions later that inning with the Saints leading Upstate Eight Conference crossover foe West Aurora 5-2 Saturday morning in St. Charles.
After starting pitcher Shawn Ligocki worked a 1-2-3 top of the first, the Saints got things going in their half of the frame as leadoff man Corbin Marucco (2 for 3) reached on a bunt single.
"Before the game, I talked to Coach Asquini to see what he thought and he said it would be a good idea so I just tried to lay one down the third-base line," said Marucco.
"We knew it was going to rain. We wanted to come out and get some runs early to beat the rain and get five innings in."
Seniors Austin Gift and Anthony Adduci followed with back-to-back RBI doubles to give the Saints a 2-0 lead.
After Kyle Tiltges (2 for 3) pushed courtesy runner Brendan Benvenuti to third with a groundball to the right side, Jimmy Dale reached on an infield throwing error that allowed Benvenuti to come across with the Saints' third run.
"It was a real nice first inning," said Saints coach Len Asquini, who was pleased with his team's early execution.
"That's something we've been working with our guys on because when we don't execute particularly well, we have troubles."
West Aurora (6-11-1) cut its deficit to 3-2 with a pair of second-inning runs.
Jake Lipscomb reached on an infield single and walks to Connor Palmby and Cody Wyeth loaded the bases for Matt DesJardine, who delivered a 2-run single down the left-field line.
"He (third baseman Dale) might have been able to get to that ball on a dry day but he slipped and that gets into the outfield," said Asquini. "There's two runs and all of a sudden it's back to a one-run ballgame after you work so hard to get up three right away."
In the third, the Blackhawks loaded the bases on walks to Oscar Acevedo, Jake Arsenault and Palmby but Ligocki worked out of the jam when first baseman Monty Carbonell caught a foul popup for the third out.
"We had a couple opportunities to score but we couldn't get a hit at the right time," said Blackhawks coach John Reeves.
Tiltges added a 2-run ground-rule double in the fifth before the game was called.
"He has been hitting a ton," Asquini said of Tiltges. "He's seeing the ball well and just stinging it."
Jon Recchia tossed a scoreless fifth as the Saints earned their sixth straight win - ninth in their last 10 games.
"It's another game with no errors," said Asquini, whose team visits Jacobs Monday.
Senior pitcher Win Kipp suffered the loss for the Blackhawks.