Baseball: Parpet's HRs make perfect birthday present
In his third year of playing varsity baseball, Conant's Jake Parpet has never hit a home run.
So Parpet timed his first blast perfectly, on his mother Beth's birthday. And to make Beth's birthday even more special, Parpet belted a second homer to help lead Conant past host Rolling Meadows 17-2 Friday.
"It's my mom's birthday so I think it was that," Parpet said. "I wanted to do something special for her. We all got the job done at the plate."
Conant starter Bryce Loeger was on a pitch count. But Parpet and the rest of the batting order didn't even give Loeger time to get all his pitches in.
Conant (12-4, 4-1) scored in every inning and didn't allow Loeger, who was on a tight pitch count, to even come close to his allotment. Cougars coach Derek Fivelson wanted to have Loeger ready for next Wednesday's game against Barrington.
"I knew I was on the pitch count," said Loeger, who pitched just three innings and threw just 59 pitches.
"It was good to see the guys smack the ball around the field and have some fun."
Conant didn't waste much time in giving Loeger some breathing room.
After Parpet doubled and Logan Gale walked to begin the game, Isaiah Rhodes doubled off the top of the wall, scoring both. Rhodes then came into score on JD Gorski's fielder's choice. Cooper Hanson, who singled, would later score on Matt Maize's sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
Parpet, who is the battery mate of Loeger, belted hits first homer in the next inning, a two-run run blast to put Conant up 6-0.
Conant continued their onslaught with a trio of runs in the third. Maize tripled home Hanson, who had doubled to lead off the inning. After Angelo Colletta walked and stole second, Nicholas Nitti singled home two runs to make it 9-0.
"It felt great out there today," Nitti said. "It is always great when we are all hitting."
Rolling Meadows (9-5. 2-3) was able to get a run back. Jake Repak, one of the state's top stolen base leaders, walked and the stole second and third. He came home on Dominic Falco's single.
Conant put the game on ice in the fourth. The Cougars loaded the bases with one out. Then consecutive walks to Gorski, Colletta and Nitti forced in a trio of runs. Nitti followed with a two-run double. Parpet then blasted his second homer of the day.
Meadows got their final run on an RBI single by Repak.
Parpet had three hits and five RBI to lead Conant. Nitti had two hits and four RBI, Rhodes had two hits and two RBI, Maize had three RBI and Gorski two RBI.
"We definitely saw the ball real well today, " said Fivelson, whose team had 11 hits. "They all went up there very confident today."
Rolling Meadows coach Matt Rice said that Conant's fast start hurt his team.
"Our pitcher left a couple balls up and they took advantage of it," Rice said. "We have a great senior class and everyone stayed behind each other. It is easy when it falls off the rails to get on each other, but the guys stayed behind each other."