Baseball: Maine South wins in extras again

Updated: April 26, 2012 10:54PM

As Maine South and Evanston went into their second extra-innings game in the past three days, the Hawks tried to leverage Tuesday’s victory into a source of inspiration and a reminder to continue battling.

Maine South’s message worked. The Central Suburban South leaders won 4-3 in nine innings Thursday.

“It was a big momentum win for us,” said Maine South’s Jimmy Frankos of Tuesday’s 2-1 victory in nine innings. “They got us twice last year and we wanted to come back, get them this year and that win on Tuesday propelled us into today. We said, though, that without a win today, a win on Tuesday meant nothing.”

The Hawks (17-3, 6-0 Central Suburban South) held Evanston without a hit in the eighth and ninth innings, and caught a break in the bottom of the ninth when Evanston reliever Jack Anderson, a submariner, couldn’t field Mike Virgilio’s weakly hit groundball to start the inning.

Rocky Saavedra followed with a single, forcing the Wildkits (12-12, 3-4) to play the percentages and load the bases with an intentional walk. With the bases loaded, one out and five infielders playing around the diamond, the stage was set for Frankos.

“I saw they brought the five infielders in and I just had to hit the ball hard,” said Frankos, whose well-hit fly ball was dropped in centerfield, allowing Maine South to prevail. “It’s a great pitcher out there — the submarine’s tough to hit — but I knew I just wanted to hit the ball into play and make them make the play.”

Although they dropped their second consecutive extra-innings game to Maine South, Wildkits coach Frank Consiglio was quick to remind his team of last year’s three games against the Hawks.

Thursday’s loss had “zero impact. If anything, I think it’s the other direction,” Consiglio said. “We said in our postgame (that) we beat them twice in the regular season last year and they eliminated us from the playoffs. So we’re trying to fight through some things, get healthy and get some players back and be aggressive and get out here and compete. It’s not fun, but impact? I think impact and fun are two different things.”

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