Guilfoyle gets it done for Plainfield East

Updated: May 17, 2011 8:52PM

Ben Guilfoyle wasn’t trying to overpower any hitters Tuesday. The Plainfield East pitcher put his trust in his defense and it paid off as the Bengals took the first game of a three-game series against Southwest Prairie rival Plainfield South with a 7-3 victory.

``I really didn’t have my put-away curve,’’ Guilfoyle said. `` My game is to mix speeds and hit my spots. I’m not going to blow anyone away.’’

Guilfoyle was on his game for the first five innings, allowing no runs on five hits. He recorded no strikeouts and did not give up a walk. His team rewarded him with five runs in the first two innings.

Dustin Demumbrum came around on a base hit by Mike Rogala in the first inning for a 1-0 lead for the Bengals (13-15, 9-10).

East took control of the game in the second inning by scoring four runs. Two of those runs were unearned after a pair of errors. Nick Sharrow drove in Russell Burroughs and Tom Vachon with a base hit to left. Sharrow scored on a base hit up the middle by Matthew Kramer.

``Nick got in a funk earlier, but he has been working on his approach and it’s paid off,’’ East coach Adam O’Reel said. ``All year we have preached that if you play defense, you will be in every game. (Nick and Mike) made every play today.’’

Third baseman Rogala and shortstop Sharrow were perfect in the field. The pair on the left side combined to make 11 assists and one solo putout. The game-ending out was made on a play where Rogala dove to his left to snag a hard grounder and fired a bullet to narrowly beat the runner at first.

Rogala also started a pair of double plays with relays to Kramer who turned it to first baseman Vachon.

``Lately we’ve been improving a lot on defense,’’ Sharrow said. ``We do a series of six different drills we call the Easton drills. It really has helped us.’’

South (19-10, 9-7) broke through on Guilfoyle in the sixth inning with three runs. Austin Curry drove in Victor Garcia and Jake Roberts with a double to the right-center gap. Guilfoyle allowed another hit before getting a double play to work out of the jam.

Vachon was 3-for-3 and Sharrow was 2-for-4. Garcia and Curry both had a pair of doubles.

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