Baseball: Zagorski, South Elgin stymie Bartlett

Robbie Zagorski held down Bartlett for 6 innings, and South Elgin's bats finally came alive late as the Storm downed the visiting Hawks, 7-0, in Upstate Eight action on Saturday.

Garrett Wano had 2 hits and drove in 3 runs and leadoff man Austin Doty scored twice for South Elgin (17-3).

Zagorski no-hit the Hawks for 5 innings until Michael Vaca led off the sixth with a clean single up the middle for the Hawks' first and only hit of the game. Zagorski walked 4 and struck out 6 in 6 innings.

"I knew that my offense and my defense would pull through eventually," he said. "After the first inning we were solid. They made every play."

Bartlett starter Nate Gargano nearly matched him. After allowing Doty's single leading off the game, he didn't allow another hit until the fifth.

"As young as he is, he kept us in the game," said Bartlett coach Devin Rosen. "He changed speeds, located very well. He did a good job."

But South Elgin finally broke through in that fifth inning. After a one-out walk to Doty, Pat Keaty and Wano followed with singles to bring in the first run.

The Storm then broke the game open with a 6-run sixth. Wano's 2-run single was the big hit. Keaty, Logan Romasanta and Anthony Nablono added run-scoring grounders.

"We were all hitting the ball hard, it's just a question of getting it into the holes," said Wano. "I just started seeing the ball get deeper and hit it that way. I was trying to hit the ball the other way in order to get some runs in."

Besides Vaca's single, the Hawks drew 2 leadoff walks and 2 more with 1 out but couldn't get a run across.

On South Elgin's prom day, the Storm stayed focused and overcame some early adversity to pull out the win.

"Anytime you play your rival, anything goes," said South Elgin coach Jim Kating. "Their pitcher did a real good job. We had some opportunities early that we didn't capitalize on. Robbie didn't have his best stuff, but he gutted through and got us 6 quality innings."

Keating took over on the mound in the seventh and closed it out for South Elgin.

Bartlett dropped to 8-9 on the season.