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Elgin downs rival Larkin, ends 20-game skid
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
Updated: May 17, 2011 10:56PM
For a stretch of 20 games spread out over 33 days, nothing seemed to go right for Elgin High’s baseball team.
That made the sense of impending doom all the more prevalent for the Maroons on Tuesday against rival Larkin as they saw their five-run lead to start the bottom of the seventh shrink to one. The bases were loaded with two outs for Trevor Whitehead, the top Royals hitter, when at long last Elgin’s fortunes finally changed.
Following the second pitching change of the inning, Maroons reliever Joe Kellenberger induced Whitehead to hit a chopper to the right side of the infield. Second baseman Javier Cardenas charged the ball and flipped to Joe Quick at first base for the final out, preserving a 6-5 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory.
The triumph gave Elgin (3-25-1, 3-18-1) its first taste of success since beating East Aurora on April 12 and ended the team’s 20-game slide. Meanwhile, Larkin (9-21, 3-19) saw its losing streak hit 12. The teams continue their three-game series with 7 p.m. games Wednesday and Thursday at Trout Park.
“We were due for a breakout win, and this was it,” Elgin senior Shaiquelle Hayes said. “I’m proud of my team.”
The Maroons committed five errors on the day and struck out 11 times against Larkin starter Miguel Villafane, but a solid effort by Elgin starter Drew Bloomquist and some timely offensive production made up for those shortcomings.
Hayes led the attack for the Maroons by driving in a run and scoring three times. Jake Bartelt provided what turned out to be the biggest run of the game with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when he sent a bloop single to left to drive in Cardenas and give Elgin a 6-1 lead.
Larkin had a run in but nobody on with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when Victor Saldana singled to center off Bloomquist. Kyle Newquist followed with a single and Drew Shore brought both runners home with a two-run double to make the score 6-4. Shore later crossed the plate on Bloomquist’s fourth wild pitch of the game to pull the Royals within one, prompting Elgin coach Dave Foerster to summon Eric Daly from the bullpen.
Daly walked Jack Eckholm and gave up an infield single to Pete Lennard to load the bases before giving way to Kellenberger, who fell behind in the count to Whitehead before battling back for the final out.
“We told Trevor after the game there’s no one else we want up there,” Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. “It was a borderline pitch and I think Trevor did the right thing by swinging at the one he did. He just hit it to the one guy (Cardenas) that is going to pick it up every time on their team.”
Cody Wahl (2-for-3), Newquist (2-for-4) and Lennard (2-for-4) all had multi-hit games for Larkin.
Villafane (3-5) went all seven innings and issued five walks to go with his 11 strikeouts. He didn’t allow a hit until Hayes’ single with two outs in the fifth, and only three of the six runs he surrendered were earned as the Royals finished with three errors.
“It was a nice comeback, but we didn’t do enough little things to get the job done,” Esterino said.
Bloomquist (1-3) was the winning pitcher for Elgin after allowing five earned runs on eight hits while striking out five and walking five in 6 2/3 innings. Cardenas had two RBI for the Maroons.
“It’s been a tough couple weeks here, but we stayed together as a team and believed in each other,” Foerster said. “In an inning like that seventh inning, maybe two weeks ago it would have really would have fallen apart, but we pulled through.”
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