Baseball: McHenry eliminates Elgin
After four innings of play, 10th-seeded Elgin was tied with No. 2 seed McHenry 2-2.
The possibility of a Maroon upset was at hand.
The Warriors quickly squashed that idea with 3 runs in the fifth and 3 more in the sixth in posting an 8-2 win in semifinal action of the Class 4A Cary-Grove baseball regional Wednesday afternoon.
The Warriors (25-10) will play the winner of Thursday's Grant vs. Cary-Grove game Saturday for the regional crown at 11 a.m. Elgin ends its season with an 8-26 mark.
"I liked our approach at the plate early in the game," said Elgin coach David Forester. "We came ready to play and battle. We made some mistakes in the fifth and sixth innings and McHenry took advantage of our mistakes. They are a very good team and you can't give them extra outs. I was proud of our guys' effort."
The Warriors scored a run in the first inning off losing pitcher Matt Turner on an RBI single from Jake Evans.
The Maroons grabbed a 2-1 lead in the third on a 2-RBI single by Jack Sitter.
The Warriors tied the score at 2 in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring single by Chase Grasso.
In the fourth, the Maroons loaded the bases with 1 out, but McHenry starting and winning pitcher Owen Patzin got out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts.
"That was a huge inning for us," said Forester. "We had a chance to take the lead but couldn't make any contact. McHenry took away the momentum in the game."
The Warriors seized control of the game in the fifth courtesy of an RBI double by Grasso and run-scoring singles by Joe Kaminski and Evans.
McHenry added 3 in the sixth on an RBI double by Kaminski and RBI singles from Dylan Honkala and Nolan Shannon.
With 12 hits, the Warriors were led by Kaminski who was 3-for-3 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI. Nick Finley, Evans, Shannon and Grasso each collected 2 hits each for the winners.
Patzin struck out 9 and walked 2 in 6 innings to earn the victory. He gave up 2 runs on 7 hits.
"Owen has been phenomenal all season and he was tremendous today," said McHenry coach Brian Rockweiler. "He got out of some big jams and we were able to take control of the game. I thought we were a little nervous to start the game. We didn't play loose. We finally broke loose in the fifth and sixth and had some hits and good at-bats. We know in a one-and-done situation like the playoffs a bad inning or a bad game and your season is over."