Streamwood walks away victorious

Updated: June 1, 2011 10:53PM

Postseason victories don’t come much more gift wrapped than the one Streamwood picked up Wednesday.

The Sabres collected only three hits on offense and gave up seven runs to a relentless Rockford Boylan team, but the math still somehow came out in their favor in an 8-7 victory against the Titans in the DeKalb Class 4A Sectional semifinals.

Streamwood (28-6) benefitted from three Rockford Boylan errors, but even more telling were the 13 walks and one hit batter issued to Sabres hitters by a trio of Titans pitchers. Four of the free passes came with the bases loaded, which loomed large as Streamwood hung on to advance to Saturday’s 11 a.m. championship game against either Dundee-Crown or Cary-Grove.

“Don’t get me wrong, we capitalized on some of their mistakes and our hitters were patient,” Streamwood coach Steve Diversey said. “Sometimes it’s good to be lucky. I chalk this one up as an ugly win, but we move on and we get to play Saturday. At this point that’s all that matters.”

Leading the walk parade for the Sabres was senior catcher Nick Pryor, who drew a base on balls in all four at-bats, including one with the bases loaded.

Brandon Larkin-Guilfoyle also showed plenty of patience at the plate, drawing three walks, one of which drove in a run with the bases loaded. He also scored two runs.

Of Streamwood’s eight runs, three scored on bases-loaded walks, two came in on a dropped popup, one came home on an infield single, one scored on a sacrifice fly and one scored when Richie Gorski was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

“You’ve got to be patient sometimes,” Pryor said. “If you’re going to win with three hits, you have to do stuff like that to beat a good team like that in a game like this.”

The Sabres didn’t get their first hit until Alex Morrow connected for a ground-rule double to left with one out in the fifth inning. That helped spark a three-run rally that put Streamwood ahead 6-2, but Rockford Boylan (26-6) clawed back with a single tally in the bottom of the fifth and two more runs in the sixth to pull within 6-5.

Streamwood still had only one hit in the top of the seventh when Bobby Post hit a shot down the third-base line that was knocked down by Titans third baseman Mark Garton for an infield single. Pryor followed with a walk to load the bases, and Pat Manning came through with one of the biggest at-bats of the game two batters later.

With two outs, Manning lifted a looper that landed between the pitcher’s mound and second base for an RBI infield single, driving in Brent Kiesel from third. Gorski was then hit in the head by a pitch in the next at-bat, bringing home Post to put the Sabres ahead 8-5.

Those two insurance runs proved critical when Rockford Boylan’s Jake Royster hammered a two-run homer off Sabres ace Josh Harris in the bottom of the seventh to pull the Titans within one. Jason Painter reached on an error in the next at-bat to bring the winning run to the plate with no outs, but Larkin-Guilfoyle turned a key double play on R.J. Roberts’ grounder to second before Harris struck out Brandon Larson looking to end the game.

Dalton Lundeen (7-1) started and picked up the win for Streamwood after allowing four earned runs on seven hits while striking out 10 in 5 1/3 innings.

Joe Kubera (4-2) started for Rockford Boylan and gave up no hits and no earned runs in 1 1/3 innings, but he was still tagged with the loss as he left the contest with a 2-0 deficit in the second inning. Kubera issued four walks and his defense committed all three of its errors during his short stint on the mound.

“(Walks and errors) are never going to work in a team’s favor,” Rockford Boylan coach Chris Rozanski said. “Obviously if you take those first two innings away it’s a different ballgame, but we all know it’s all seven, especially in the postseason.”

Larson (2-for-4, home run, two RBI), Zach Stoner (2-for-3, RBI) and Garton (2-for-3) led the 10-hit attack for the Titans.

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