SOUTH ELGIN -- St. Charles East proved it can win in more ways than one Saturday as the Saints battled Upstate Eight Conference foe South Elgin.
East dominated Game 1 for a 7-2 win and fought back from a four-run deficit for an 8-7 win in Game 2. The doubleheader sweep comes on the heels of a 17-7 five-inning loss to the Storm on Thursday.
"We had something to prove to ourselves and to them that the team they saw Thursday wasn't the real St. Charles East," said Saints coach Mark Foulkes. "They took it to us and that's a credit to them, but we wanted to show them the type of team we can be. I think we did that today."
The Saints (14-13, 13-8) got a lot of production from the bottom of their lineup in Game 1. Starting with the No. 5 hitter Tom Lollino, East put together six hits in a row in the top of the second inning to take a 5-0 lead. East added one in the third and one in the fifth to make it 7-0.
The Storm (11-11, 11-11) finally got to starting pitcher Kyle Wiebe in the bottom of the sixth when Kyle Fitzpatrick, who had three homers in Thursday's win, belted a two-run homer to left.
"Fitzpatrick put on a great hitting display this whole series," Foulkes said. "He tried to get a little momentum back but we were able to shut the door before he got to come up again."
Wiebe improved his record to 5-3 while Storm starter Ryan Kellner dropped to 2-2.
Game 2 of the twin bill proved to be much more dramatic. This time, South Elgin played textbook baseball through five innings and jumped to a 6-2 lead off of Saints starter Josh Heitzman. The Storm had eight sacrifices at the plate, and defensively shortstop Kellner was making one stellar play after another.
But then came the top of the sixth inning. After scoring two runs to cut the Storm lead to 6-4, Steve Schenck stepped up to the plate with runners at second and third and two outs. Schenck fouled a pitch to right field that could have been caught, and then responded by drilling a single down the left-field line to tie the game at 6.
"After I fouled that one off I realized I probably should have been out so I just tried to relax and get a ball to hit," Schenck said. "I knew we had good hitters coming up so I was pretty confident we were gonna get the lead."
Schenck was right. The next two batters, Johnathan Erickson and Mike Hoscheit, each had two-out RBI doubles to give the Saints an 8-6 lead. South Elgin cut the lead to 8-7 in its half of the sixth and came close to winning it the seventh, but Kyle Daker's bid at a walk-off two-run homer to center field landed about two feet short and the Saints' Tyler Deetjen struck out the final batter to earn the save.
"Between the substitutions I had to do and between situations that were going on and Kyle Daker almost wining the game -- he just got under that a little bit -- it was a great, exciting high school baseball game," said Storm coach Jim Kating.
Sophomore Drew Buddle (1-2) started for the Storm and took the loss while Heitzman (1-2) got the win.
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