Baseball: Hampshire rallies to salvage tie with Dundee-Crown
Updated: April 13, 2012 9:49PM
At the rate Dundee-Crown and Hampshire are going, maybe both teams should start scheduling their baseball games to begin at dawn to avoid running out of daylight.
The visiting Chargers went toe to toe with the Whip-Purs for nine innings Friday before their Fox Valley crossover contest was halted due to darkness with the score tied 3-3. The outcome marked the second tie of the season for each team.
Dundee-Crown (4-7-2, 1-2-1) was coming off a 10-inning loss on Thursday and has now played four extra-inning contests this year, including one that ended in a tie after eight innings. Hampshire (7-4-2, 1-1-1) has been involved in three extra-inning games, including a 10-inning affair that resulted in a tie in its season opener.
Friday’s game will likely be completed only if the outcome affects the championship race in either the FVC Fox or FVC Valley Divisions.
“We’ve become accustomed to just playing Major League innings,” Dundee-Crown coach Tom Parisi joked. “But seriously though, our record is 4-7-2 and we haven’t had a game that has been comfortable either way. We’ve been right there in every game all season.”
While neither team found the outcome particularly satisfying, the Whip-Purs can at least claim they mounted a noteworthy comeback.
Hampshire trailed 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth when junior Tyler Crater drew a one-out walk. He then stole second and moved up to third when Dundee-Crown catcher Dylan Kissack’s throw sailed into center field. The comedy of errors continued when center fielder Jake Romano airmailed his attempt to throw out Crater at third, allowing Crater to score his team’s first run.
The Whips pushed across two more runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the score, again getting the job done without a hit.
Justin Thinger and Jacob Kuhn began the inning with back-to-back walks and moved up to second and third, respectively, on Luke Wians’ sacrifice bunt. Thinger scored when Chargers shortstop Garret Ryan booted a Sean O’Shea groundball and Kuhn came across with the tying run on Michael Laramie’s sacrifice fly to left.
“The thing about these kids is no matter how many runs they get down, they never give up,” Hampshire coach John Sarna said. “They show a lot of heart. It doesn’t matter what the score is because they always think they can come back.”
Hampshire finished with only four hits but benefitted from five Dundee-Crown errors. Chargers starter Nick Lodi went seven innings and struck out five but also issued six walks.
Dundee-Crown scored its first run in the fourth inning when sophomore Zach Girard singled and came home on Dylan Kissack’s RBI single. In the sixth Mike Hazelhurst added an RBI single and Trent Muscat had an RBI double for the Chargers.
Kissack and Hazelhurst both went 2-for-4 to pace Dundee-Crown’s eight-hit attack.
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