Baseball: Opportunistic Palatine downs Maine West

Hits were hard to come by for Palatine on what turned out to be a bitterly cold Friday afternoon.

Runs, however, weren't.

Playing opportunistic baseball and capitalizing on every opportunity, the Pirates scored a 6-3 nonconference win over visiting Maine West.

"It wasn't fun," said Palatine pitcher Jack Betz, who went six strong innings for the win, of the frigid conditions.

"Your arm gets sore quick," added the junior, "and it starts to tighten up. You just try to stay loose and stay warm."

Despite being shut down on attack for most of the game, the Warriors hung tough and brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the seventh.

"This was our first game and our first time playing on an actual baseball field this year," said Maine West coach Mike Randazzo. "We haven't even been able to practice on our field yet, so a lot of rust early. A lot of errors on easy plays that should have been made.

"It's never easy to play in freezing weather like this," added Randazzo, "but the whole game was nothing but positives for us. We looked at this as sort of a preseason type thing, and for us to make this many errors and still be one play away from tying the game was all positive."

Both teams plated single runs in the first inning, then the Pirates (2-2) scored twice in the second without the benefit of a hit as Ryan Dysangco (force out) and Eric Pecson (sacrifice) drove in runs.

Then Palatine scored three more times in the third, again without a base hit. After Betz, Jake Andersen, and Thomas Philbin all drew walks to open the frame, Luke Seiffert hit into a fielders choice to plate one Pirate runner.

Then a Warriors miscue and another walk led to 2 more runs, and meanwhile Betz kept shutting down the Maine West hitters.

"I was leaving my fastball up in the beginning," said Betz, "so I had to start off the at-bats with my off-speed stuff. Once I got comfortable I was able to locate my fastball."

Maine West (0-1) scratched out a run in the fourth, then scored again in the sixth when a single by Enrique Melendez helped the Warriors close to within 6-3.

Then catcher Alex Del Real opened the seventh with a long triple.

"We battled hard today," said Del Real. "It was nice to be able to come back at the end. At the plate there I was thinking, 'just do my job', and try to get on base."

The Warriors had men on first and third in the seventh with two outs when Emmett Olson hit a long drive to left that was caught just in front of the fence for the final out.

"This was a tough environment to play in today," said Palatine coach Paul Belo, "but that's part of being a baseball player in the state of Illinois. It's where we live, our kids have got to become focused on things other than weather. I understand that can handicap you, but they've got to do the little things like take care of their bodies, stay hydrated, and do the things they need to do in their pregame routine.

"Jack (Betz) did a nice job today," added Belo. "He did a good job of pounding the zone. He had a good fastball but was also able to come up with that secondary pitch, keep them off stride, and keep them looking for something else."