Prep Baseball: Jacobs batters D-C before rain strikes

ALGONQUIN -- Jacobs will have to wait two days to finish what it started against rival Dundee-Crown on Wednesday.

The Golden Eagles scored in each of the first four innings and jumped out to a 6-0 lead against the Chargers before rain suspended the game in the top of the fifth inning.

Play will resume Friday at D-C when the contest will be picked up with one out in the top of the fifth. The previously scheduled game between the teams that day will follow.

Wednesday's postponement only tightens an already convoluted race for the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division title.

With less than two weeks left in the regular season, all six FVC Valley teams have at least three league losses, and the top five teams are separated by only a half game in the standings. Jacobs (9-7, 4-3) and D-C (11-7, 4-3) entered Wednesday's action tied with Cary-Grove for first place.

On top of Wednesday's suspended game, both the Golden Eagles and Chargers have an additional suspended game hanging in the balance against other opponents. Considering both squads have seven league games to finish in the next 10 days, Jacobs is well aware that hanging onto its lead against D-C could mean a lot in the highly competitive title race.

"We'll talk more about that (importance of holding on for the win)," Jacobs coach Eric Sanders said. "We've had some discussions because we've let some games get away from us, and I think collectively as a group we realized it was a tempo issue. We've allowed teams to get back into their own rhythm instead of kind of closing the door on them."

With eight hits thorough the first four innings, the Golden Eagles were able to find a rhythm at the plate right away against the Chargers.

Mike Castillo connected for a solo home run in the first to put Jacobs ahead 1-0. The Golden Eagles then tallied a pair of runs in the second when D-C committed two errors on the same play, allowing both the runner on first and the batter to circle the bases and score.

Jacobs added a single tally in the second when Castillo doubled and scored on Bobby Molinaro's RBI single. Johnny Amann had an RBI double in the fourth and later crossed the plate thanks to another Chargers error to make the score 6-0.

"The kids had a good game plan going in today in terms of their hitting approach, and they executed," Sanders said.

Meanwhile, Castillo was cruising on the mound with seven strikeouts through the first 4 1/3 innings. After getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the first, Castillo surrendered only a pair of singles in the second before retiring the final eight batters he faced.

Ben Rodriguez started for D-C and was touched for six runs, only three of which were earned. The Chargers were plagued by four fielding errors.

"You cannot make (four) errors," D-C coach Fred Bencriscutto said. "That's the story of the game. Either we get better or we're going to get beat, period."