Hartkopp powers West Aurora past Glenbard South
West Aurora third baseman Darrin Hartkopp's hitting approach against Glenbard South on Thursday was no different from it has been all season.
"I was just sitting on a fastball down the middle and it came every time," Hartkopp said. "So I just put my bat on it."
Hartkopp is hitting over .400 this spring, but he was never more dominant than he was against the Raiders. The junior went 4-for-5 with 3 runs scored and 6 runs batted in, including a decisive 3-run home run in the fifth inning, to lead the Blackhawks to a 15-7 Upstate Eight Conference victory in Glen Ellyn.
Hartkopp, who had the game-winning hit in the ninth inning of Wednesday's 2-1 win over Glenbard South, got the first hit of this game when he doubled high off the left-center field wall in the top of the first inning.
Danny Marion and Graham Rachow followed with RBI doubles to give West Aurora (19-7-1, 15-5-1) a 2-0 lead.
That was the just the start of a wild battle that saw the teams combine for 22 hits, 8 walks, 8 errors and 5 hit batsmen.
The Blackhawks scored 3 runs in the second inning, capped by a Hartkopp RBI single, to go up 5-1, only to see the Raiders (21-12, 17-9) bat around in the bottom of the inning, scoring four times to tie the game.
"You just kind of had a feeling early on that it was going to be one of those days where the ball just seemed to jump off everybody's bats," West Aurora coach John Reeves said. "Our guys swung the bats really well, their guys hit the ball hard all over the ballpark.
"For a while nobody could get anybody out. There were all kinds of opportunities for hitters to drive in runs."
Nobody took advantage of that more than Hartkopp, who reached base all five times up. He got his second RBI when his fly to deep right with one out and the bases loaded was dropped, allowing Adrian Ruiz to score the go-ahead run in the fourth.
The Raiders took a 7-6 lead in their half of the fourth on run-scoring singles from Mason Barnick and Logan Barnick, who combined for 5 RBI and 6 of Glenbard South's 9 hits.
But the Blackhawks batted around in both the fifth and seventh innings to pull away. Eddie Wilson led off the fifth with a home run to left and Ruiz, who allowed two unearned runs in 5 innings of relief to get the win, delivered a go-ahead double to score Logan Mont.
After Anthony Malczyk drew a two-out walk, Hartkopp blasted his home run to left to give the Blackhawks an 11-7 cushion. The pitch was a fastball, which surprised Hartkopp.
"Yeah, I was expecting curve, but I don't think the pitcher's curve was working today," Hartkopp said. "So I got fastball and drove it."
Hartkopp got fastballs from three pitchers. His home run knocked Tyler Rush out of the game, and Rush's replacement, Benicio Hagedorn, was taken out after giving up an RBI single to Hartkopp in the 4-run seventh.
"Six RBI, that's a nice day," Reeves said. "We'll take it. Early on, I thought we'd probably need it, the way (the Raiders) were swinging and scoring."
But the Raiders got only 1 hit in the final three innings against Ruiz, who hit three batters but allowed only 3 hits while striking out 5 over five innings.
"Every day when you step out between the white lines you never really know what to expect," said Glenbard South coach Marco Eufrasio, whose team committed 6 errors. "Today we put ourselves in a position where we're competing in a ballgame.
"We had a lead at one point, but they kept hitting and we kind of stopped."