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Streamwood pitchers keep North Stars in check
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
Updated: May 7, 2011 8:20PM
As each inning went by Saturday with Streamwood trailing in both ends of its doubleheader against St. Charles North, starting Sabres pitchers Josh Harris and Dom Tatone kept their cool.
After all, they’d seen this all before this season.
“I knew the bats were going to come alive sooner or later, they have all year,” Tatone said.
This Upstate Eight River doubleheader proved no different. Harris capped a rally with his bat in Streamwood’s 4-3 victory to start the day. In the second game, the Sabres exploded for five sixth-inning runs and two more in the seventh to overcome a 2-1 deficit for an 8-5 win after Stars starter Jake Johansmeier had appeared on the verge of stopping the Sabres’ winning streak at seven.
“That’s one thing about this group is they know it’s seven innings and we’re not going to stop,” Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said. “We just keep battling. We might be down early but we know we’re going to get our opportunity sooner or later and we take advantage of them.
“They believe they can win and there’s nothing that’s getting in their way. Confidence is a scary beast.”
The Sabres (22-2, 16-2) went 7-0 on the week and it let them remain even in the loss column with St. Charles East in the River Division race.
In Game 1, Harris (6-1) thought he’d thrown away his team’s chances in the fourth inning of a 1-all contest. His throwing error on a pickoff attempt put Johansmeier at third base, and Johansmeier broke the tie on Dirk Smith’s sacrifice fly to right. Then Harris hit Jake Bergren, and although he struck out Nick Gilmore for out No. 2, the ball went into the dirt allowing Bergren to advance into scoring position. Matt Thomas’ single drove in what looked like an insurance run for a 3-1 Stars lead.
“I was the one who made the mistakes out there defensively for us,” Harris said. “It was nice to be able to kind of redeem that and get us the lead.”
Harris came up to bat against reliever Josh Loynachan, who came on after starter Phil Warner (4-1) allowed Brandon Larkin-Guilfoyle’s single and made a throwing error on Bobby Post’s grounder before walking Alex Morrow.
The left-handed hitting Harris launched an opposite-field shot off the fence in left to drive home all three for the lead.
“It was a pretty big spot for me,” Harris said of his three-run double. “I tried not to think about it too much. They brought in a guy who I know is a great pitcher. I just got a pitch that I could hit and tried not to do too much with it.”
Harris then went to the mound and retired the Stars without allowing a runner past second in the final three innings. He struck out 12, walked one, gave up six hits and two earned runs.
Matt Thomas went 2-for-2 for the Stars in Game 1 and John Brodner had a first-inning RBI. The Sabres got two hits from Harris and a double from Patrick Manning, who drove in their first run with a second-inning, bases-loaded walk.
In Game 2, Johansmeier (3-1) allowed Nate Pearson’s leadoff home run, but then recorded 15 outs over five innings without allowing a run while John Munyon provided him with run support with a third-inning RBI single and a fifth-inning, go-ahead RBI double.
But in the sixth, Manning got hit in the head by a curve ball leading off, and it caved in for Johansmeier, who allowed four earned runs and five hits with seven strikeouts and a walk over 5 1/3 innings.
After a wild pitch and Richie Gorski single, Tim Cohen hit a sacrifice fly to right. Larkin-Guilfoyle then tied it at 3-3 with an RBI single, causing Stars coach Todd Genke to turn to reliever Carl Formento.
Alex Morrow singled, stole a base and scored on Nick Pryor’s double for a 4-3 Streamwood lead. A Dalton Lundeen sacrifice fly, Blake Hunter’s RBI single, and Cohen’s RBI single made it 6-2.
“It was weird,” Genke said. “All the sudden the wheels came off. It just seemed like it was their day today.”
North (13-8, 11-5) was playing its 11th game in 10 days and saw its hopes of winning the UEC River title take a major hit.
Tatone benefited from the late explosion, and the two runs the Sabres got in the seventh on a wild pitch and Cohen’s RBI single proved huge when the Stars scored three off Tatone (2-0) in the final two innings. Tatone allowed seven hits and five runs, three earned, in 6 1/3 innings.
“I give them credit,” Genke said. “They’re a good team and we are too. We’re going to be right at their heels and hopefully come out on next Tuesday and get that game (at Streamwood) and roll the dice and see what happens.”
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