Baseball: Hornets Rally Comes Up Short

The baseball team fell behind early and then rallied late to make things interesting. But ultimately the team fell, 9-7, to Burlington Central during Thursday's non-conference ballgame in Darien.

Burlington Central right-hander Sam Klein surrendered a run in the first inning as Sean Beesley singled, stole a base and scored, but the senior pitched around trouble during the next four innings, shutting out the Hornets until the bottom of the sixth inning.

Hinsdale South (1-1) fell behind early as hurler P.J. Schuster walked leadoff man Ray Hunnicutt before surrendering a two-run home run to Klein. The Rockets would add an extra run in the opening frame to jump ahead 3-1 after one inning.

The Rockets extended their lead to 5-1 in the top of the fifth when catcher Tanner Scott fouled off a few pitches before blasting a two-run homer run to center field.

Scott was trouble all afternoon for the Hornets. In addition to his homer run, he had two other hits and thwarted the Hornets' running game by nabbing a pair of potential base stealers.

"He's had a great year so far at the plate and he's coming around defensively as well," Burlington Central coach Kyle Nelson said. "He's doing a fantastic job and is an imposing guy to have in the middle of the lineup. I'm glad he's on our side."

Burlington Central (3-2) appeared to have broken the game wide open with a four-run top of the sixth inning to extend its lead to 9-1, but in the bottom of the inning the Hornets knocked Klein out of the game and scored six runs to pull within 9-7.

"I fully expect to see us hit more this season like we did in the sixth inning," Hinsdale South coach Kraig Conver said. "Early on we left a lot of guys on bases, but you have to give credit to their pitcher who did a real nice job of pitching out of it."

Nick Sarocco reached on an error, and Mitch Duckhorn and Kyle Nelson walked to load the bases to begin the bottom of the sixth. Reliever Kevin Zasada walked in a run before Beasley and Tyler Langosch followed with back-to-back two-run doubles to make it a 9-6 contest. Emmanuel Morris made it 9-7 when he reached on a rbi ground ball that was misplayed by the shortstop.

The Hornets put themselves a hit or two away from tying the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. With two away, Eric Burger walked and Beesley singled for his third hit of the game to bring up Langosch, the potential winning run. Langosch, who had three hits on the afternoon, popped up an offering from reliever Joey Lange to end the ballgame.

"We fell behind but I liked how we picked it up and fought back," Langosch said. "It's still early, but I liked what I saw with how we worked deeper in the count, saw some pitches and put runners on base."