Home Runs Spoil Bulldogs' Postseason Plans

Heading into this past week’s Class 4A regional tournament, Batavia baseball coach Matt Holm might have had a premonition about what was going to take place.

“I can’t remember a team I’ve had with a batting average that’s as low as ours,” Holm said of his team’s collective .270 batting average recorded during the regular season. “That’s a real oddity for me. It’s a big part of why we struggled early on.”

Another oddity for a Holm-coached squad is getting eliminated in the play-in game of the tournament.

Unfortunately, that’s what happened as the Bulldogs’ season came to an end after their 4-3, extra-inning loss to Glenbard East on May 23 in Lombard.

Clean-up hitter Chris Milligan’s solo home run that carried over the right field fence with one out in the bottom of the eighth was the game-winning hit for the 15th-seeded Rams (12-19), who went on to lose a 10-2 semifinal decision to second-seeded St. Charles East on May 25 in Geneva.

Prior to the game, Holm talked about facing a team for the first time all season but against a coach he was familiar with from previous contests.

“I know their coach pretty well,” Holm said of Rams coach John Walters. “We’ve played his teams for a long time (when he was at West Chicago). I know his style of play.”

Surprisingly, Walters’ Rams weren’t known as a power-hitting team coming into the game but home runs wound up spoiling the 18th-seeded Bulldogs’ hopes.

After the Bulldogs were held scoreless in their half of the first inning, Glenbard leadoff man Mike Dexl belted a solo home run to put the Rams on top 1-0.

Glenbard eventually stretched its lead to 3-0 before the Battlin’ Bulldogs inched their way back.

In the second, Jay Clark reached on an infield error before designated hitter Nick Beltrano laced an RBI double down the left-field line to make it 3-1.

While starting pitcher Michael Rutas (5-5) settled in after a rough start and retired 15 of 16 batters at one point, the Bulldogs tied the game in the sixth.

Sophomore third baseman Danny Ritchason’s RBI single to center made it 3-2 before the tying run came home on a double play.

Batavia wasted an excellent chance to take the lead in the top of seventh after Beltrano’s leadoff double. But an unsuccessful sacrifice bunt attempt left the go-ahead run at second, and Holm decided that Braden Hrack’s two-out single to left was hit too hard to send Beltrano home.

Glenbard’s Pat Walsh (4-3) wound up getting the win in relief of starting pitcher Nick Vichio, who was struck on the forearm by a line drive off the bat of Andrew Scaccia.

Rutas was the tough-luck losing pitcher for the Bulldogs.

Batavia finished its season with a record of 14-18.

It marked the final prep game for seniors Adam Jones, Ben Allison, Mickey Walsh, Anthony Carby, Joe Sortino, Beltrano, Scaccia, Hrack, Clark, and Rutas.