Dundee-Crown charges past Elgin

A four-run second inning gave Dundee-Crown all it needed on Monday, as the fourth-seeded Chargers defeated fifth-seeded Elgin 5-3 to advance to the Class 4A Larkin Regional semifinals on Wednesday.

The Chargers (7-22) entered their half of the second inning down 2-0 but quickly put together a five-hit rally to go up 4-2.

Brendon Schumacher (2-for-2, walk) and Kirk Hanselmann both reached on singles and with one out, Chris Sailor and Kyle Ryan (2-for-3, double) each produced RBI singles to tie the game at 2.

Nick Spagnola then put D-C up for good with an RBI double to left and Jake Romano finished off the four-run frame with a sacrifice fly to right.

“I felt that that was really important because we kind of booted the ball around there in the top (of the inning) and to answer like that was really important,” first-year D-C coach Jon Sawyer said. “Brendon threw a great game and he started that rally with a nice two-strike at-bat to get it going.”

The Chargers played small ball in the bottom of the fifth to go up 5-2. Steve Schwartz led off the inning with a double to right and after Willy Larsen advanced him to third by taking it to the right side of the infield on a groundout, Chris Leifel sent him home on a squeeze bunt.

Schumacher (2-6) pitched for the Chargers and was solid for seven innings, allowing three runs — one earned — on five hits and four walks.

Elgin (4-28) chipped a run off D-C’s lead in the sixth after a pair of singles and an error led to an RBI groundout by Javier Cardenas.

The Maroons had the tying run at the plate in the seventh after Dan Schmerber walked with one out but Adam Jazwiec grounded into a double play to end the game.

“For the most part, we played a decent ballgame,” Elgin coach Dave Foerster said. “We left a few guys on base in certain situations where we could have used a hit or two, but that’s kind of been our season.”

The Maroons tallied one run in each the first and second innings. Jazwiec doubled in Lee Jackson in the first and Elgin went up 2-0 on a Ryan error in the second. Elgin stranded the bases loaded in the second.

“All season, we’ve kind of lost or won because of one big inning,” Schumacher said. “So we were just trying to minimize that, stop the bleeding.”

D-C’s big fourth doomed Elgin starter Tom Roth (2-6), who allowed five earned runs on eight hits and a walk, while fanning one.

“I was leaving the ball up and they tagged it,” Roth said of the fourth inning. “They’re a good hitting team, you have to give them credit, but that one inning really killed us.”

Roth, a three-sport star for the Maroons, was one of eight seniors playing their final game for Elgin.

Tyler Loiseau reached base safely on all three of his plate appearances, walking twice and singling.

The Chargers will meet top-seeded South Elgin at 4:30 Wednesday at Larkin.

“A lot of people are going to underestimate us,” Schumacher said. “So we’re going to go out and try to surprise some people. The last time we played (South Elgin) we had eight errors. So, if we can minimize that, you never know.”