Baseball: South Elgin gives Piaskowy plenty of support

With the way South Elgin pitcher Drew Piaskowy was dealing Wednesday afternoon, he wasn't going to need a ton of run support at Glenbard South. But that's not to say he didn't smile a few times as the runs piled up early.

With 2 outs and a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first, Jesus Adrian Munoz Aparicio lined a 3-run homer over the fence in left center field for a 4-0 lead. The Storm, which had edged the Raiders 2-1 on Tuesday, then tallied single runs in the second and fourth innings and three in the third to give Piaskowy a 9-0 lead on the way to a 12-4 Upstate Eight Conference win in Glen Ellyn.

"It's always good to get those early runs," said the junior hurler, who pitched 5 innings and struck out 8 Raiders. "My knuckleball had good movement and today was one of my better games. It was dropping from their head to their knees."

Piaskowy struck out 17 batters in a loss to Streamwood last Friday, but the South Elgin lineup made sure he had plenty of support this afternoon. Leadoff hitter Matt Jachim walked to start the game and scored the game's first run on Ben Karpowicz' deep sac fly to left. One out later the long ball from Munoz Aparicio gave the visitors a 4-run lead before Glenbard South had stepped to the plate.

"It felt good to put the pressure on them early," said Jachim, who reached base safely five times with a trio of walks and two hits. "That home run in the first helped a lot and then it was good to keep scoring runs."

Munoz Aparicio finished the day 2-for-3 with 4 RBI while Karpowicz added a single and two walks to his first-inning sac fly.

"That has been the key as of late. Our pitching has stepped up and they're throwing strikes and getting out of jams," Storm coach Jim Kating said. "We gutted one out yesterday 2-1 and Drew was pretty sharp today. At the plate I thought we had real good approaches today and Jesus has gotten some big hits for us lately."

For Glenbard South, which dropped to 7-10 overall and 5-5 in the UEC, center fielder Nathan Zambori had two hits, 2 runs and a stolen base, and Trevor Gelino and Ricky Cyrus each had RBI singles in the seventh. Piaskowy kept the home team off the scoreboard for four frames but the Raiders touched him for two runs in the fifth before the Storm (10-5, 10-2) turned the game over to their bullpen to finish things off.

"We got behind the eight ball and just put ourselves too far behind," Glenbard South coach Marco Eufrasio said. "Their pitcher kept us off balance. We hadn't seen anything like that (knuckleball). But even so, we fought back and we also played well yesterday and this is a good team we went against."