Baseball: Erik Fetchko, Plainfield East avoid Minooka sweep

Updated: April 5, 2012 9:40PM

After committing 13 errors in dropping the first two games of the Southwest Prairie opening series to Minooka, Plainfield East performed a 180 Thursday.

The Bengals made most of the plays in the cold, blustery conditions and Erik Fetchko went 4-for-4 with a double and drove in four runs in a 9-5 victory over the No. 4 Indians.

“Defense killed us the first two games. Today, we limited the mistakes,” East coach Adam O’Reel said. “We put pressure on someone else instead of putting it on ourselves.”

“They made a lot of plays today, much different than (Wednesday),” Minooka coach Jeff Petrovic said.

Petrovic noted how difficult it is to sweep the three-game series in the SPC. Minooka (8-4, 2-1) was on the verge after scoring twice in the top of sixth to tie it at 5, but East (5-6, 1-2) scored four times after the first two batters were retired in the bottom of the inning. A throwing error on a ground ball that could have ended the inning scored the first two runs and Chayanze Sturbis (2 hits) and Fetchko followed with RBI singles, helping make a winner of reliever Mario Guzman.

“They had the first two guys out and then there were a couple of close (ball-and-strike) calls we didn’t get,” Petrovic said. “We get one of those and it may have been different. But no excuses. We walked nine guys and we have to play better than this.”

“It felt good to get a win,” Fetchko said. “It’s definitely a confidence boost. It felt good to get a couple of hits to drop in, finally. It’s been tough out here with how hard the wind has been blowing.”

Dustin Demumbrum had an RBI single in East’s four-run second. Carson Neushwander tied it with a run-scoring triple in the sixth, Steve Wittkamp tripled and T.J. Condon and Joe Carnagio had two hits for Minooka.

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