Litrenta leads ACC to victory over H-BR

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Hinckley-Big Rock found out what other opponents have encountered when they face pitcher Kenny Litrenta.

The Aurora Central Catholic ace blanked the Royals in four innings of work, leading the Chargers to a 6-0 victory at ACC's field. The game was shortened to five innings because H-BR played a second game later against Chicago Christian.

Litrenta limited the Royals to three singles to help improve Aurora Central's record to 3-8 on the young season. Litrenta also shut down Plano earlier in the week in a complete-game, one-run effort.

"We got good starting pitching, timely hitting, and good defense," noted ACC head coach Michael Armato.

The Chargers got plenty of offense from their lefty hurler as well. Litrenta had three hits, scored a run, drove in another run, and swiped a pair of bases for good measure.

Litrenta got things going early against Hinckley-Big Rock starter Colton Craig. His leadoff triple turned into a run in the bottom of the first inning on Brian O'Donnell's groundout. One out later, Matt Wagner reached on a single and was driven home on a double by Kevin Droeske (2-for-2), making it 2-0 ACC.

The Chargers tacked on another run in the second after singles by Tyler Goodson and Litrenta and a sacrifice fly by O'Donnell. They got their final run in the fourth inning when Litrenta's single scored Brian Droeske from second base.

"We're not blessed with an overabundance of athletic ability, so we have to make every opportunity count," Armato said. "They (Hinckley-Big Rock) are a young team, but their coaches did a nice job instructing -- they'll get better as the season goes on."

Meanwhile, Litrenta was in command, mixing up his fast ball and curve and hitting his spots. He struck out five, three of which came on a called strike. Steve Hollon finished the mound work, striking out two in the fifth inning.

H-BR (2-4) was limited to singles by Craig, Kyle Michael, and Jack Peters.

"Their pitcher (Litrenta) really shut us down," Hinckley-Big Rock coach Matt Olson said. "The strike zone was pretty big, so we got behind in the count quite a bit. So we were defensive in our approach, rather than aggressive. We need to play better defensively. And we got picked off twice in scoring situations, so that's kind of a dagger when you're trying to change the momentum." Baseball