Lowden homers lift South Elgin past Huntley

Photos: Huntley vs. South Elgin

South Elgin's Ken Lowden is not your typical No. 9 hitter. Then again, this was not your typical non-conference, early April high school baseball game.

Lowden homered twice for his second and third round-trippers in his last seven at-bats, and South Elgin beat Huntley 7-4 on Saturday in a game that lasted 14 innings, twice as long as a regulation high school game. The contest ran for 4 hours and 7 minutes.

"I wanted to kind of end the game," Lowden said. "I was getting tired, everyone was getting tired - just get it over with and eat."

Lowden hit a tie-breaking, two-run shot to left off Huntley reliever Nick Kostalek with two out in the top of the 14th inning after Daniel Heine had singled, and the Storm added another insurance run on Robbie Green's single and John Menken's RBI double to win a battle of two teams who came into the contest 4-0 on the year.

"If we want to go far in the playoffs, we want to keep beating these good teams," Lowden said. "It means a lot to our team and to our program."

The three-run 14th gave the victory to sophomore David Palmer, who in his first varsity action threw more than 100 pitches in 7 1/3 innings of relief for starter Marty Knuth. Palmer escaped bases-loaded jams in the ninth, 11th and 12th innings.

"I was nervous," said Palmer, who had just been promoted to varsity Saturday. "I had good defense behind me. I was trying to throw strikes."

South Elgin had broken a scoreless tie in the sixth, but Huntley rallied for three in the seventh, and Palmer retired Nick Bralich on a bouncer back to the mound with the winning run at third to force extra innings.

South Elgin appeared to have the game won in the 12th when Lowden launched his first home run down the left-field line, but Huntley rallied again with Josh Prokuski's RBI single after Jake Perkins' leadoff double.

"That's a nice, quality win from a program that went downstate last year," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said.

The Storm (5-0) had been first on the scoreboard in the sixth thanks largely to three errors in the inning by Huntley third baseman Bryce Only, but Only atoned for the mistakes an inning later.

Only's throwing error on Dillon Gardner's bunt let a couple runs in and another scored on Heine's RBI single. All three runs that inning were unearned off starter Bryan Doherty, who allowed five hits in 5 2/3 innings with two strikeouts and one walk.

However, in the bottom of the seventh, Only hit a clutch one-out, two-run home run to left off Knuth, who went gave up seven hits in 6 2/3 innings with five strikeouts and two walks. Then, with two outs, Colin Lyman legged out an infield single and scored on Brody Burkhart's game-tying RBI double to left-center.

"We have the mindset that we're never out of a game," Only said. "We just couldn't get that (final) big hit today."

Palmer struck out six, allowed seven hits and walked three. He saved his best effort when in trouble. He retired Nick Bralich on a grounder to third with the bases loaded in the ninth, got a pop out with the winning run in the scoring position in the 10th, and then accomplished his best feats in the 11th and 12th.

Huntley loaded the bases in the 11th with none out, but Burkhart lined hard to Menken at shortstop, who doubled Colin Lyman off first base. Then Bralich struck out. In the 12th, after Prokulski's RBI single tied it, Huntley loaded the bases with one out, but Nick Corpolongo flew to left and Lyman flew to right.

"He (Palmer) came out this (past) summer and showed that he had the skills to pitch up here (in the summer league)," Kating said of the sophomore. "He might not be the only one who might be coming up and getting opportunities to do things, too. I'm very happy with what he did today."

Palmer even had enough left to strike out two in the 14th after South Elgin's three-run outburst.

The finish wiped out an excellent outing in relief by Huntley's Craig Klein. In 7 1/3 innings, he gave up only Lowden's first home run and two meaningless singles. He struck out five, walked none and faced the minimum number of batters until Lowden's homer to left.

"Everybody played their hearts out," Jakubowski said. "It was a great high school baseball game. It really was."

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