Sabres tie record for wins by holding off Maroons

Updated: May 9, 2011 10:08PM

ELGIN — A strong first and second inning spurred the Streamwood baseball team to an 8-5 win at Elgin in an Upstate Eight Conference River Division matchup Monday.

The Sabres reeled off seven of their eight runs in the first two innings and kept the Maroons at bay long enough to earn the win.

Streamwood (23-2, 17-2) ties a single-season school record for wins with the triumph. Winners of nine in a row, the Sabres will try to break the mark previously set by last year’s team when it hosts St. Charles North today.

Streamwood coach Steve Diversey liked the way his team swung the bats early against Elgin, but he was upset with his team’s unwillingness to keep the pressure on.

“Not to take anything away from Elgin, but our kids were flat for the most part today,” Diversey said. “We had a good approach early on, but we got complacent and we ended up doing just enough, and I mean just enough to win.”

Adrian Martinez knocked in two Maroons runs with a double in the sixth inning off of Streamwood reliever Lucas Leckie to make the score 8-5. The hit gave Elgin (2-21-1, 2-16-1) hope of beating a Streamwood it may play again at the upcoming Hoffman Estates Class 4A Regional.

Leckie settled down in the seventh inning, though, recording two outs on his first two pitches of the inning. Following a Lee Jackson single up the middle, Leckie struck out Jacob Meyer to end the game.

“You have to play mistake free for an entire game to beat a team as good as Streamwood,” said Elgin coach Dave Foerster. “We couldn’t do that today, but we kept fighting until the end, and that is the positive to take away.”

The early onslaught of Streamwood runs started in the first when third baseman Brandon Larkin-Guilfoyle knocked in Richie Gorski with a single. Larkin-Guilfoyle had a visible limp, but still managed to go 3-for-3 with three RBI on the day.

“I’ve been nicked up for a while now,” Larkin-Guilfoyle said. “But it was great to put some pressure on them early. You have to give them some credit, because they’re a good team and they fought back.”

The Maroons looked to be down for the count when the Sabres racked up seven hits and six runs in the second inning. Streamwood batted around in the inning and at one point recorded five straight hits. Larkin-Guilfoyle had a double in the inning that knocked in two of his three RBI.

Elgin starting pitcher Eric Daly settled down after a rough first couple innings. The junior got in trouble early by falling behind in counts, and only found success when he started to get ahead of hitters. Daly retired seven straight Streamwood batters at one point from the second through fifth inning.

Behind Daly’s improved pitching, the Elgin offense gave the Sabres a scare that Diversey won’t forget.

“We gave (Elgin) a few extra outs today,” Diversey said. “That isn’t really characteristic of us, and we can’t do that going forward.”

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