Baseball: Maine South bounces Maine West

After a modest three-game unbeaten streak, Maine West's baseball team was hoping to keep things bouncing its way against district-rival Maine South. But it was the Warriors that got bounced.

Maine West made 5 errors, walked seven and hit two batters as the Warriors fell to the Hawks 12-1 in five innings Tuesday in Des Plaines.

"We have to play our game," Maine West coach Mike Randazzo said. "It is not about the opponent. We have the talent to play with anybody. But if we make the mistakes and basically beat ourselves it is not going to be good."

After a tie with Hoffman Estates and wins last week over Schaumburg and Prospect, Maine West (3-7-1) appeared to be making the move forward.

Things looked good for the Warriors, who were tied with Maine South (8-5) after three innings 1-1.

They fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first when South's Bobby inserra scored on a single by Timmy O'Brien. Maine West tied the game in the third when Emmett Olson had his second single of the game, driving home Justin Scholler, who had singled earlier.

"I was looking for the fastball again," Olson said. "That's what I hit both times. I knew I had to bring a guy in, so I took it up the middle."

From there, the bottom fell out for the Warriors.

It was bad in the fourth for Maine West when 3 errors led to 3 runs on just 1 Maine South hit.

It was even worse the following inning when the Hawks parlayed 2 errors, 5 walks and just 3 hits into 8 runs to put the game away.

"It was tied," Randazzo said. "We then make those three errors. And our pitching wasn't on either."

Maine South coach Brian Lorenz, whose team ended a three-game losing streak said things came together for his team.

"It was a beautiful day," Lorenz said. "The boys put the bat on the ball and good things happened. I liked our approach at the plate today."

The Hawks, who only mustered 6 hits, had 3 of them from O'Brien.

"I was feeling good," O'Brien said. "I was working in the cage. I just wanted to hit line drives."

Practice is where Maine West can turn things around according to Olson.

"We are just on and off," Olson said. "It just happens. But we are going to get back to work tomorrow in practice so we will be ready for our next game."

Randazzo agreed with Olson's assessment.

"I wish it wasn't such a roller coaster," Randazzo said. "I told the guys we would be fine. We just have to get some consistency."