Dundee-Crown claims back-and-forth win

Updated: May 27, 2011 8:38PM

Initially, Dundee-Crown’s offense had an answer for DeKalb’s hitting, but in the end of a back-and-forth battle, it was the Chargers’ defense producing the necessary response for a thrilling 8-7 victory in Friday’s semifinal of the Class 4A Huntley baseball regional.

Entering the top of the seventh with a three-run deficit, the No. 3-seeded Barbs pushed home two runs and had the tying run at second and a go-ahead run at first before the Chargers put a stop to the rally thanks to Scott Nowicke’s running catch in right-center. That advances No. 2-seed Dundee-Crown into Saturday’s championship against host and top-seed Huntley — a team the Chargers (23-13) beat twice during the regular season.

“We all had the bats going today,” said Dundee-Crown’s Jake Romano, who hit his third and fourth homers of the season. “That’s how we’ve tried to play all season, whenever the other team hits, answer back.”

DeKalb clean-up hitter Jake Jouris blasted the first pitch he saw over the left-field fence to give the Barbs a 2-0 start only to have the Chargers start the bottom of the first with a single from Nowicke, another single from Steve Schwartz and then a Romano rocket over the right field fence for a 3-2 lead.

Barb ace Cody Vargas (7-3) led off the second with a double and Patrick Aves then put one over the right-field fence to reclaim the lead for DeKalb. But in the bottom of the inning, Corey Volberding drew a lead-off walk and advanced to second on Jimmy Griffin’s ground out before coming home on DeKalb’s only error of the contest for a 4-4 tie.

In the third, Brian Sisler singled up the middle with one out and raced to third on a Jouris single to deep left center before coming home on Jake Gordon’s RBI single to give DeKalb its third lead at 5-4. But once again, the Chargers responded as Dylan Kissack doubled and then scored off a Nick Spagnola single. After Spagnola stole second, he raced home on Kirk Hanselmann’s base hit for a 6-5 lead.

Thankfully for Dundee-Crown, ace Mike Lodi didn’t allow a trio of errors by the Chargers to hurt them as he left two Barbs stranded for the second consecutive inning.

“Initially I couldn’t get the ball down and they’re a pretty good team, that number four hitter [Jouris] was awesome,” Lodi said. “But once I settled down, I was able to hit the outside corners. Thankfully our bats were pretty much non-stop, like getting the lead right back in the first, that was huge.”

In the bottom of the fourth, Schwertz got a timely two-out single before Romano went yard once again in right for an 8-5 lead.

“Basically I was just looking for good pitches to hit knowing the wind was blowing out,” Romano said. “The first one I wasn’t sure but the second one I knew it was gone. [Home run contact] just feels great.”

After yielding a single to start the fifth, Lodi got the next three Barbs out and after an error to start the sixth, the Chargers got three straight outs including a pair of pop-ups caught by shortstop Schwertz who seemed to claim balls beyond his territory.

“Coach always tells us to be aggressive and as a senior, I want to be the leader of the infield,” said Schwertz, a Roosevelt University signee. “I have all the trust in the world in my teammates, but I feel like I can get to every ball.”

Although Schwertz gunned down DeKalb’s first batter in the seventh, the Barbs’ Jouris completed a 4-for-4 effort with a double to center. A groundout got Jouris to third before Lodi gave up back-to-back walks prompting the Chargers to call upon Jordan Kalous to get the last out and his third save. But DeKalb didn’t got down without a fight as Daniel Petras singled to center to drive in a pair of runs before Nowicke got the game-ending catch.

“I’m proud of the way we battled especially to get the tying run to second,” said DeKalb coach Jacob Howells, whose squad ended its season 22-14 with 12 wins in the final 16 contests. “I knew the game wouldn’t be a blowout despite both teams finding ways to score runs. We just ran out of outs in the end. To their credit, their hitters got a lot of two-strike hits, but that’s what good teams do, they find a way to get hits and runs.”

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