Henie comes up big for South Elgin

Updated: May 4, 2011 10:06PM

Dan Heine’s piece of clutch hitting lifted South Elgin to a key Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division win against Lake Park on Wednesday.

With the score tied in the bottom of the seventh, Heine stepped to the plate with two outs and runners at second and third. The Storm’s No. 9 hitter and catcher proceeded to work the count against Lake Park reliever Jake Pygman, and facing two strikes, Heine stuck his bat out and sent a flare into right field.

The liner dropped in for a single, bringing home Nate Garris with the winning run as South Elgin came away with a dramatic 7-6 triumph.

“I was definitely trying to put the ball in play,” Heine said. “I saw (Pygman) yesterday and I had a 3-2 count on him and he threw me a fastball, so that’s what I was looking for again.”

With the win South Elgin (14-4-1, 8-4-1) stays one game behind Neuqua Valley in the loss column in the UEC Valley standings. The Storm also avenged a heartbreaking loss to the Lancers on Tuesday in which South Elgin rallied to tie the score with four runs in the top of the sixth, only to give up three runs in the bottom of the inning en route to the defeat.

Game 2 of the three-game series had a similar complexion as South Elgin rallied from a 4-2 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, only to surrender that advantage by giving up two runs in the top of the sixth.

Garris had the big blow for the Storm in the fifth when he came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs and ripped a two-run single to left. Lake Park left fielder Eric Vatch then misplayed the ball, allowing Andrew Weedman to score from first and Garris to move up to second. Garris then came home on Nate Halas’ RBI single that put the Storm ahead 6-4.

The Lancers struck right back in the sixth to tie the score at 6 as John Schram led off the inning with a solo homer and Tom Spear walked and came home on Brandon Boyle’s RBI single. Ryan Ford then came on in relief for the Storm and retired the next two batters to strand Boyle at third.

Heine’s heroics in the seventh wouldn’t have been possible without the fifth and final error of the day for Lake Park. With two outs, the Storm’s Dillon Gardner hit a sharp grounder to Lancers third baseman Zach Tsiodras, who threw wildly to first, allowing Gardner to move up to second and Garris to go to third.

Heine then drove in Garris in the next at-bat to even the series. The teams play the rubber game today in Roselle.

“We like to fight,” Heine said. “We knew if we would have gone down 0-2 in the series that we wouldn’t have been able to win it. Our goal is to win every series because that will put us in the right position.”

Boyle finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, Max Boryszewski had two RBI and Jeremy Olenek scored a pair of runs for Lake Park (11-10, 7-7). The Lancers were done in by their poor fielding, which led to six unearned runs.

Sophomore Christian Taugner started for Lake Park and allowed only one earned run on seven hits while striking out four in six innings. Pygman (0-4) pitched the seventh and took the loss.

“To even be in the game in the seventh inning, you’ve got to count your blessings when you have (five) errors,” Lake Park coach Dan Colucci said. “Our guys tried to battle through that and I thought both of our pitchers did a nice job. You just can’t give a good team (five) extra opportunities in a game.”

Halas finished 2-for-4 and Kenny Lowden connected for his 10th home run of the season on a solo blast in the third to pace South Elgin’s offense.

Eric Stazy started for the Storm and allowed four earned runs on five hits while striking out three in 5 1/3 innings. Ford (2-0) was the winner on the mound after retiring all five batters he faced in 1 2/3 innings.

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