Dundee-Crown bats come alive vs. Jacobs

Photos: Dundee-Crown vs. Jacobs

Updated: April 27, 2011 3:23PM

After being no-hit by Crystal Lake South and getting five hits in a loss to McHenry, it was harvest time for Dundee-Crown's offense Saturday against Jacobs.

"We're a real streaky team, and the ball looked like a melon today," Chargers senior leadoff man Scott Nowicke said.

Nowicke smashed the melon-sized baseballs for two home runs, drove in five runs and had four hits on the day to lead the Chargers' 11-1 and 16-4 slaughter rule-shortened doubleheader sweep of the District 300 rival Golden Eagles in Fox Valley Valley baseball action.

"It was nice to come out today and play the way that I think we can play," Chargers coach Jon Sawyer said after D-C pounded out 17 hits in Game 2 and took advantage of Jacobs mistakes on the mound and in the field in Game 1.

D-C (10-8, 7-3) had four hits and four RBI from Jake Romano, three hits and four RBI from Kirk Hanzelman, and three hits and three RBI from Corey Volberding in the two games.

"It was a complete waste of time, and I thought we were pretty confident coming in that we were going to hit," said Jacobs coach Erik Kehoe, whose team came in off a 15-0 victory over Woodstock North. "We planned on coming here and winning two games and for us to display - I don't know what to call it today - was a complete embarrassment.

"It's back to the drawing board, get the nose to the grindstone and be ready for Monday."

Mike Hazelhurst (3-1) got the Game 1 win. He carried a 0.41 earned run average into the contest and gave up a first-inning run on Mark Self's double and a sacrifice fly, then blanked the Golden Eagles (3-10, 4-7) for four innings while his offense dominated.

"It's always good beating Jacobs twice," Hazelhurst said. "It's Crown-Jacobs, one of the most exciting games that we play."

It was dull Saturday because Hazelhurst limited Jacobs to four hits and struck out four over five innings. He benefited from one of three double plays the Chargers turned on the day.

"Both Mike and Mike (Lodi) threw the ball especially well," Sawyer said. "What I was really happy with was both guys gave up a run in the first and then we were able to come down and shut them down after we had answered. That's always the key to try to keep the momentum on your side. And they did a great job working ahead and pitching effectively."

Nowicke smashed a deep two-run homer to right-center in the third inning of Game 1, and D-C capitalized on two hit batters, a balk, two wild pitches, and two Jacobs errors to give Henry Giegeous (0-2) the defeat.

Nowicke matched his five-home run total of last season by hitting his second homer leading off the second game - the Chargers were visitors in the nightcap even though they were at home in the doubleheader, which had been rained out three times. The shot went straight down the line in left and the Chargers went on to collect seven extra-base hits in Game 2 in support of Lodi (2-2), who struck out five and walked two in a game shortened to six innings.

Lodi gave up a leadoff home run to Mark Self in Game 2, but held Jacobs scoreless after that until the fifth. Joe Ross (0-2) took the defeat by giving up eight hits in three innings, including three hits in a three-run second. D-C scored four in the fifth highlighted by Steve Schwartz's RBI double and six in the sixth, highlighted by Romano's two-run double.

"We saw two really good pitchers in Henry and Ross - we've actually hit probably the better pitching best this year," Sawyer said. "We've shown signs, but we haven't been able to put it together consecutively and consistently, and that's what we're going to have to do if we want to make a run here."

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