Bulldog Baseball Team Awaits Postseason Play

Preparing for postseason play, Batavia’s baseball team earned a split against a pair of conference championship teams while keeping another team from claiming a conference title this past week.

Batavia (14-16-1, 10-13-1), which has won 10 of its last 13 games, closed out its first season in the Upstate Eight Conference with a 6-5 victory over South Elgin (22-9, 16-9) last Friday in Batavia.

With the loss, South Elgin finished second behind first-place Waubonsie Valley in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division final standings.

Junior right-hander Nick Pappas worked 5 2/3 innings to pick up the win before giving way to junior reliever Austin Higgins, who retired the final four batters for his second save.

The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the second before scoring five times in the third off of South Elgin starting pitcher Nevin Jeske.

Danny Seiton led off the frame with a double and scored on Sam Burnoski’s RBI single, and the Bulldogs final four runs of the inning came across thanks to a pair of Storm errors.

Joe Sortino (triple) and Andrew Scaccia (double) added extra-base hits for the Bulldogs, who begin Class 4A Geneva regional tournament action Monday afternoon against Glenbard East.

“We’ll throw (Michael) Rutas,” Holm said of Monday’s postseason opener. “I don’t know a lot about Glenbard East but I know their coach, John Walters, pretty well because we’ve played against his teams for a long time when he was at West Chicago. I know his style of play.”

One area of concern for Holm is his team’s offense, which has struggled at times throughout the season.

“Our bats have to improve,” said Holm. “I can’t remember a team I’ve had with a batting average as low as ours (.270). That’s a real oddity for me, and it is part of why we struggled early on.”

Batavia’s bats were silenced by Kaneland ace Bobby Thorson during a 3-1 loss to the Knights on May 19 at Elfstrom Stadium.

Seiton’s RBI double in the fifth accounted for the Bulldogs’ only run.

Ben Allison, who left the game with a runner on first and two out in the sixth, was the tough-luck losing pitcher.

Relief pitcher Steven Patterson allowed a single to Brian Dixon and walk to load the bases before giving up a two-run, bad-hop single off the bat of Kyle Davidson.

“Ben (Allison) threw a great game,” said Holm. “I knew that Dixon had swung the bat pretty well against him earlier so I brought Patterson in and ended up getting the same result that you feared.”

Braden Hrack had two of the Bulldogs’ three hits off of Thorson.

“We hit the ball hard but unfortunately we hit the ball right at people,” said Holm.

Batavia began the week with a 1-0 win over Suburban Christian Conference Blue champion Marmion at Elfstrom Stadium, as Rutas (5-3) tossed a complete-game shutout with four strikeouts.

The Bulldogs won the game on Pappas’ two-out, RBI single in the seventh inning.

If Batavia beats Glenbard East Monday, it will advance to face UEC River co-champion St. Charles East Wednesday in Geneva.