Sunday, July 10 (WEEK 10)
BATS SWEEP WEEKEND DOUBLE-HEADER: DEFEAT MARAUDERS, 7-3, AND WHITE SOXX, 11-4
LAKE IN THE HILLS — The Bats earned a rare victory over the Marauders, 7-3, on Friday night at Plote Field with a combination of clutch pitching and spectacular defense. John Eisenmenger scattered 12 hits to gain the complete game victory while forcing the Marauders to leave 11 runners on base. The right-hander was aided several times by shortstop Tom Klauba who put on a fielding clinic while turning two double plays and gunning a runner out at home plate on a slow roller in the fourth inning. The win upped the Bats record to 3-5 while the Marauders fell to 3-3.
The Bats jumped on the scoreboard in the first inning when Eisenmenger was hit by a pitch with one out, stole second and scored on a two-out single by newcomer Pete Choe. In the Marauders half of the inning, Bats first baseman Matt Weiss got the defensive show going with a leaping grab of a hard line drive for the second out. After two infield singles Eisenmenger struck out the next batter looking to end the inning.
In the second inning the Bats bottom half of the lineup came alive with three straight singles by Earl Blankenship, Tony DiBlasi and Rich Skibski. Skibski was called up from the Bats Tennessee farm club and responded with an RBI hit to make it 2-0. Two outs later Eisenmenger unloaded with a 2-run double to give the Bats a 4-0 edge.
Eisenmenger pitched a scoreless second with the aid of a diving catch of a sinking line drive by left fielder Blankenship. In the third a couple of hits and a fielder’s choice left the bases loaded with no outs setting the stage for Klauba’s first DP. He fielded a ground ball near the second base bag and stepped on the bag then fired to Weiss at first to complete the twin-killing. Although a run scored to cut the lead to 4-1, it was all the Marauders would get as another groundball to Klauba ended the inning.
The Marauders scored again in the fourth inning, but were thwarted in their efforts to add more runs by Klauba’s brilliant fielding. After three straight hits plated a run and left runners on the corners, Klauba turned a slow groundball into an out at the plate with a perfect strike to catcher Tom Paul who applied the tag for the first out. Klauba caught a pop up for the second out and got a groundball force out to Choe at third base to end the inning with minimal damage, still clinging to a 4-2 lead.
The Bats failed to score again through the top of the sixth, but the Marauders made it interesting in their half of the inning. They touched Eisenmenger for two singles, a strikeout, and two more singles to make it 4-3 with the bases loaded and only one out. Klauba came to the rescue once again with a groundball near the bag at second where he stepped on the bag and made and off-balance relay to first to complete his second double play and killing a Marauders rally for the third time.
The Bats added the final nail to the Marauders’ coffin in the seventh when they scored 3 runs with two outs to make it 7-3. Choe and Paul had RBI hits in the inning while DiBlasi picked up an RBI when he got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Eisenmenger pitched around an error and the Marauders 12th hit in the final frame to secure the Bats third victory of the season. He was aided by his own catch of a tough pop up and an inning ending catch of a pop up by Weiss in foul territory.
WOODSTOCK — The Bats jumped out to an early 7-0 lead and held on to defeat the White Soxx, 12-4 in a Sunday morning game at Emricson Park. Greg Kaczmarek pitched a complete game 4-hitter with 9 strikeouts to pick up his second victory of the season while the Bats collected a season-high 13 hits to back the right hander. The victory improved the Bats record to 4-5 and moved them into third place while the White Soxx fell to 2-5.
The Bats scored twice in the first inning on a bases loaded force out by Earl Blankenship followed by a 2-out RBI single by Jeff McClellan. They tacked on 4 more runs to gain a 6-0 lead in the second inning as Tom Paul, Tom Klauba, John Eisenmenger and Rob Matassa all scored on RBI singles by Matassa, Blankenship and McClellan along with a wild pitch.
In the third the Bats added another run to make it 7-0 before the White Soxx picked up 3 runs in the bottom of the third. Kaczmarek walked 4 batters in a row to force in the first run followed by a 2-run single to cut the Bats lead to 7-3. Those were the only hitters Kaczmarek walked during the game as he settled down after that to hold the White Soxx at bay.
The Bats quickly countered the White Soxx scoring with 3 more runs of their own in the fourth as Rich Skibski, Matt Weiss and Klauba all scored with 2 outs to build up a 10-3 lead. The White Soxx scored an unearned run in the fifth while the Bats scored once more in the sixth on Eisenmenger’s RBI single to close out the scoring.
Two Bats hitters collected 3 safeties as Klauba and Skibski each went 3-for-5. Klauba scored 4 runs while McClellan, Blankenship and Eisenmenger each had 2 RBI to help pace the offense.
The Bats (4-5) next game will be at 1:30 PM on Sunday, July 17 against the Angels (1-5) at Wauconda High School in Wauconda, Ill.
BATS DROPPINGS
On Friday night Tony DiBlasi was hit by a pitch for the third game in a row giving him 3 for the season. This one came with the bases loaded to drive home Pete Choe from third base …. The Bats saw two lengthy consecutive game playing streaks come to an end on Friday night as Jeff McClellan (22) and Mike Steffy (49) both were unable to make the game. Steffy’s 49-game streak is the sixth longest in Bats history, but he passed on the game to join in on a Hells Angels weekend excursion to Wisconsin …. Rich Skibski, called up from the Tennessee farm club for the weekend, made the most of his 2-game stint with the Bats going 5-for-9 with 2 runs scored and an RBI. In just two games played his 5 hits is tied for seventh in team leaders for Hits …. Earl Blankenship’s 3-hit game on Friday night gave him 9 such games in his career for the Bats. Tom Klauba’s 3-hit game on Sunday gave him 7 in his Bats career, while Rich Skibski produced his third career 3-hit game on Sunday …. The Bats are hitting .296 as a team with 74 hits in 9 games (8.2 hits per game). Last season the Bats batted .311 as a team in 19 contests while averaging 9.7 hits per game. …. The Bats are now just one game off of last year’s pace after 9 games. They were 5-4 in 2021 compared to 4-5 this season. A win in their next game would even them with last year’s 5-5 record after 10 games.
