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Saints prevail over Streamwood in nine
Updated: May 13, 2011 10:59PM
St. Charles East and Streamwood put on a scintillating show Friday that seemed to defy logic at every turn.
Even with the wind blowing in and a chill in the air, no lead was safe for two of the top left-handed pitchers in the state as the much-anticipated duel between Saints ace Wes Benjamin and Sabres ace Josh Harris devolved into a slugfest.
First Streamwood rallied from a five-run deficit to surge into the lead, only to squander a three-run advantage in the top of the seventh when St. Charles East sophomore Brian Sobieski lined a solo home run over the fence in right with two outs to tie the score and force extra innings.
The stalemate finally ended in the top of the ninth when Henri Desrosiers delivered the go-ahead single and Sobieski added a sacrifice fly to lift the Saints to a dramatic 11-9 Upstate Eight River victory.
The triumph gives St. Charles East (21-6-1, 17-2-1) a two-game lead in the loss column on Streamwood (23-4, 17-4) for first place in the UEC River. The Saints have six league games remaining while the Sabres have four.
“I knew I hit it well, and even with the wind I knew it had a chance to get out,” Sobieski said of his game-tying homer. “This is probably one of our biggest wins of the season so far. For our team to have the heart and focus to comeback says a lot.”
Things went according to plan early as Harris and Benjamin cruised through the first three innings. Pat Manning’s RBI single in the bottom of the third gave Streamwood a 1-0 lead and marked only the second hit of the game for either team.
The predictable story line was turned on its head in the fourth when the Saints struck for six runs off the Villanova-bound Harris. The big blow came on Jordan Hayes’ three-run double with two outs, and St. Charles East’s 6-1 advantage seemed insurmountable with the Kansas-bound Benjamin dealing on the hill.
That air of invincibility disappeared in the bottom of the fifth when Streamwood put up a six spot of its own off Benjamin. Tim Cohen stepped to the plate with two outs and worked a full count before smashing a high fastball over the fence in right for a three-run homer to cap the rally and give the Sabres a 7-6 lead.
“I don’t think our team has been that down at any point this year,” Cohen said of the mood in the Streamwood dugout upon falling behind 6-1. “All of us were saying ‘Let’s fight,’ but I don’t know if we truly believed. That shows a lot that we could come back. Win or lose, that shows we’re going to compete every game.”
The Sabres pushed their lead to 9-6 on Richie Gorski’s two-run single off Saints reliever Johnny Hondlik in the sixth, but St. Charles East proved it wasn’t willing to go down without a fight when Hondlik belted a two-run homer off Harris with one out in the seventh to cut Streamwood’s lead to 9-8.
Sobieski then delivered the biggest hit of his short varsity career when he belted his game-tying homer off Gorski, who relieved Harris after Hondlik’s round tripper.
Gorski (3-1) took the loss after allowing two unearned runs in the ninth. Luke Rojas led off the inning by reaching on an error. He then moved to second on Tony Rallo’s single and advanced to third on Hondlik’s sacrifice bunt before scoring on Desrosiers’ go-ahead single to left.
Desrosiers finished 3-for-5 with two RBI to pace St. Charles East. Rallo (2-for-5) and Sobieski (2-for-4) also had multi-hit games.
“For our team to come back from a tough situation with their No. 1 on the bump shows a lot of courage, a lot of heart and a lot of mental toughness,” East coach Dave Haskins said.
Hondlik (2-1) went four innings on the mound to get the win. Benjamin struck out eight and surrendered seven earned runs in his five innings.
Harris tallied six strikeouts and allowed eight earned runs in 6 1/3 innings for the Sabres. Manning (3-for-4, two RBI, two runs) and Gorski (3-for-5, three RBI) led Streamwood at the plate.
“There’s no excuses and there’s no blame, this was just a great baseball game,” Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said. “It’s hard to take a loss, but we told our kids it’s not over. We still have a chance and we walk off with our heads high.”
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