Baseball: Taucher's tough on Leyden as Elk Grove advances

Brett Taucher has not pitched on consecutive days since he played youth baseball. But the junior didn't let that stop him from taking the mound Thursday.

And just like his little league days, Taucher didn't let the back-to-back days on the mound affect him. He finished with 6 scoreless innings pitched over the 2-day period as Elk Grove blanked Leyden 6-0 to advance to the regional final game Saturday at Maine West.

"I feel great after pitching these two days," said Taucher, who struck out nine and allowed just 2 hits. "I knew I was pitching today. It was really just the preparation with my arm. I just really focused on the same thing I did (Wednesday). I just tried to be consistent with it."

The Grenadiers (23-12) will be looking for the first regional title since 2013. They will meet the winner of Friday's matchup between Maine West and Loyola. If rain cancels either that game or Saturday's matchup, the title game would be moved to Monday.

Rain didn't cancel the game between Elk Grove and Leyden. But it did postpone it for nearly 22 hours.

It started Wednesday with Elk Grove taking 1-0 lead in the first. The Grens were able to score thanks to an RBI single by AJ Lorenz, driving home pinch runner Austin Brown, who had stolen second base.

In the top of the third, with the count 1-2 on Leyden's Kevin Nevarez, the lightning detector sounded. After nearly 35 minutes and with thunderstorms looming, the decision was to come back on Thursday.

Which meant Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna had a decision to make. He had to decide to come back with Taucher or go with Jonathan Maday, who had pitched on Monday.

"There was no thought at all of not coming back with him (Taucher)," Beyna said. "He only threw 26 pitches on Wednesday. If we were in that middle range, where he threw 3-4 innings, then we would have gone with Maday."

Taucher breezed through the third. Leyden (16-18) then had a pair of singles from Michael Wilms and Adrian Perez to have runners on first and second with one out.

But after a short visit to the mound by Beyna, Taucher settled down to strike out the next two batters and end the Eagles' only serious threat.

"Coach's words usually make you stronger," Taucher said.

In the bottom of the fifth, with Elk Grove still leading 1-0, it appeared that Beyna was ready to make a change.

Mid-Suburban East player of the year Christian Camacho singled with one out in the bottom of the frame. Beyna immediately substituted a pinch runner for Camacho and sent his ace to the bullpen to get ready. But the Grens would not end up needing him after they exploded for 4 runs to break the game open.

Joe Lopez followed with a double, and an intentional walk to Jack McEnroe, who would later have an RBI single, loaded the the bases. Lorenz gave the Grens some breathing room when he drilled a double to left-center, scoring a pair of runs.

"I waited for a pitch to hit," Lorenz said. "I had 2-0 count and I was looking for a fastball to drive and he gave it to me."

Beyna said that Lorenz's hit was key.

"The game was too close for comfort there," Beyna said. "Lorenz, wow, what a big hit. It was a tight spot and he answered."

Also answering was AJ Navarro, whose second hit of the game drove in a pair of runs to make it 5-0.

"We wanted to get another run there so we didn't have to use Camacho," Navarro said. "And my hit really helped out."

So much so that Camacho went back to shortstop in the sixth and Taucher went back to the mound. He finally gave way to Maday in the seventh. Maday closed out the game by facing just three batters.

"That kid, to come back after Wednesday and throw with that kind of velocity, give him a lot of credit," Leyden catch Rob Hamann said. "Their pitching staff is solid. It is good to see a team like this, so we can know what to do for next year."