Rutas pitching in for Batavia's baseball team

Senior pitcher Michael Rutas has been nothing short of a revelation throughout the early portion of the season for Batavia’s baseball team.

The right-hander, who owns two of the Bulldogs’ three victories (3-6-1), nearly improved his record to 3-0 during last Thursday’s bone-chilling clash with Neuqua Valley in Naperville.

Only a controversial call by the base umpire in the bottom of the seventh inning stood in the way of Rutas, who turned in a superb nine-inning effort during the Bulldogs’ eventual 2-2, 11-inning deadlock with Neuqua Valley.

Batavia carried a 2-1 lead into the seventh before Chris Samuel muscled a single to left to lead off the inning.

That’s when things got interesting, as courtesy runner Tyler Weiland attempted to steal second. It appeared that catcher Jay Clark’s throw had beaten Weiland by several steps but the umpire ruled that shortstop Danny Seiton failed to tag the runner.

“I don’t know what he (the umpire) saw but all I saw was the helmet fly off, then Danny’s hand go like that (waving motion),” said Batavia coach Matt Holm. “He was out by two steps. Once again, it was an example of Jay (Clark) coming through over and over again, throwing people out.”

Moments later, Neuqua sent the game into extra innings on Andrew Skowronski’s RBI sacrifice fly.

But that turned out to be the game’s last run on a wind-blown day at Neuqua Valley, as Rutas and Steven Patterson combined to limit the Wildcats to seven singles.

“My fastball was working well today,” said Rutas. “With the wind blowing in, you could let your defense do the work.”

“Michael was unbelievable,” Holm said of Rutas. “He had great innings. I hated for him to not get the win on that one. He worked his tail off in the fall and winter off-season workouts and has really gotten stronger.”

Batavia scored both its runs in the third on RBI singles by Seiton and Sam Burnoski.

Earlier in the week, the Bulldogs dropped a 9-4 decision to Bartlett (April 12) and lost a 3-2 heartbreaker to Waubonsie Valley (April 11).

Against Bartlett, Clark had a two-run single and threw out two would-be base stealers in the first inning. Patterson added an RBI single in the second before Braden Hrack singled, advanced to third on a passed ball and stolen base, and came across on Seiton’s groundout in the fourth.

Mickey Walsh was the losing pitcher for Batavia, which had eight hits but committed four errors.

Against Waubonsie Valley, Ben Allison suffered the tough-luck loss despite pitching into the seventh. Sophomore Rob Bowman provided the Bulldogs’ only extra-base hit with a double.

Batavia, which had a pair of games postponed due to rain this past weekend, will play six games in as many days this week, beginning with Monday’s nonconference contest at Glenbard South. The Bulldogs’ next home game is Wednesday against unbeaten Streamwood (12-0).