Rough Week for Batavia's Baseball Team

With four games scheduled in five days this week, Batavia’s baseball team will get an opportunity to put last week’s 1-3 record in the past.

Coming off of their 6-0 shutout victory over East Aurora one day earlier, the Bulldogs (3-4, 1-2) struggled in several key areas during Friday’s 7-2 loss to Lake Park in Batavia.

Weather permitting, Batavia will play host to Waubonsie Valley Monday afternoon.

“We’re going to forget this one and we’re going to do it as quickly as we can,” Bulldogs coach Matt Holm said after the loss to Lake Park.

Lake Park grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second before blowing the game open during a six-run third.

Starting pitcher Joe Sortino (0-2), who battled control problems, also didn’t receive much support from his teammates nor the men in blue.

“We gave up one run in the second inning and I thought, ‘OK, that’s something we can come back from,’” said Holm. “But when you give up a six-spot in an inning, it’s going to kill you.”

The lone bright spot for the Bulldogs came during their two-run fourth that included a bunt single by Sam Burnoski and an infield hit by Jay Clark prior to Andrew Scaccia’s two-run, opposite-field double.

Batavia finished with just five base hits against Lake Park sophomore pitcher Christian Taugner.

“He wasn’t even on their varsity roster,” Holm said of Taugner. “But I know that they (the Lancers) had games every day this week so maybe they brought him up (from the sophomore team) to pitch out of necessity.”

After the game, Holm was more concerned with his team’s pitching problems.

“Other than the way (Michael) Rutas pitched against East Aurora, we had eight walks in each of the other three games this week,” said Holm. “We came into the week thinking the pitching was a strong point. All of a sudden, we can’t hit a strike zone for anything.”

Against East Aurora, Rutas upped his record to 2-0 with a distance pitching performance. Braden Hrack, Steve Durham and Scaccia all had doubles as the Bulldogs stole four bases, highlighted by Danny Seiton’s steal of home.

Batavia began its week with a 6-5, 10-inning loss to Glenbard North (April 4) and a 14-10 loss to Metea Valley (April 5).

Against Glenbard North, Seiton’s two-run homer helped the Bulldogs take a 4-2 lead into the seventh but they couldn’t hold it. Steven Patterson’s RBI single in the top of the 10^th put Batavia on top 5-4 before the Panthers won it with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame.

“We had a lot of chances and didn’t finish,” said Holm.

Batavia lost its Upstate Eight Conference debut to Metea Valley despite Sortino’s second home run of the season that landed in the tennis courts beyond the left-field fence.