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Sports
Supplying the big bop : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisSupplying the big bop
| Supplying the big bop
| by Matt Daniels
| 7/8/2010
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Danny Klingbeil will not wow people with his size.
The Oswego East utility player looks more adept at slicing an opposite field base hit than pulling a home run over the fence.
But Klingbeil did accomplish that latter feat, and because of it, the Oswego East baseball team was able to earn an 18-11 come-from-behind win at home against Yorkville on Tuesday. The two teams were scheduled to play two, five-inning games, but severe weather made its way through the area, and caused the second game to be canceled with the Wolves up 2-0 during the top of the second inning.
Klingbeil's three-run home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the fourth inning off Yorkville reliever Chad Antonini tied the game at 11. That the Wolves had come back to tie the game seemed unlikely after Oswego East trailed 11-1 heading into the bottom of the third. Just as unlikely was Klingbeil mashing a home run.
"I'm usually not expected to hit a home run," said Klingbeil, who came through with one home run in 69 at-bats this past spring. "I was just trying to get a base hit. I even heard coach say 'Try to get a single.' It just happened to fly out. It was a great feeling."
The great feelings for the Wolves (9-3) continued in the inning. Oswego East started the bottom of the fourth down 11-5, but took advantage of several Yorkville miscues along with timely hits to plate an astonishing 13 runs in the frame. Oswego East sent 17 batters to the plate, and besides the home run from Klingbeil (3-for-4, four RBIs, two runs scored and a triple shy of the cycle), second baseman Adam Kaczmarek came up with another big hit.
Oswego East right fielder Zack DiZillo scored what was eventually the game-winning run on a wild pitch to give the Wolves a 12-11 lead. Kaczmarek then took an aggressive approach, lacing a 3-0 pitch from Antonini to right field for a two-run double to score catcher Cody Sumner (1-for-3) and Adam Kishanov (1-for-2, two runs scored) and make it 14-11.
"I just wanted to hit the ball," said Kaczmarek, who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs out of the leadoff spot. "It was an outside pitch and I took it the other way."
Did Kaczmarek have the green light to swing away on a count that hitters usually take on?
"Yes I did," Kaczmarek said. "I don't like to walk. I like hitting the ball."
Oswego East rapped out 18 hits in the game, and received solid efforts from Matt Miller (3-for-4, three RBIs, solo home run), shortstop Cody Burton (3-for-3, two runs scored, RBI), center fielder Bobby Smith (3-for-4, two runs scored, two RBIs, four stolen bases) and DiZillo (2-for-4, one run scored, one RBI).
It took some time for Oswego East's bats to wake up on a hot and muggy afternoon, but when the Wolves did, they also took advantage of seven Yorkville errors in the game.
During Oswego East's decisive fourth inning, Yorkville committed three of its errors.
"That's baseball," Yorkville assistant coach Scott Luken said. "It's a funny game. You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball. We did that really well for three innings, and then for one inning, we didn't do it very well. I thought we kind of had that game and we kind of just let it get away."
The Wolve started to chip away at their deficit with four runs in the third, highlighted by a solo home run over the left field fence from Miller and RBIs from Klingbeil and DiZillo. Oswego East chased Yorkville starter Jake Chronister after its first three batters - Kishanov, Kaczmarek and Miller - reached to start the fourth. That set the stage for Klingbeil's game-changing blast and the actuality that the Wolves could pull off the comeback.
"The nice thing for us was no matter when you're talking about, you can always look back at this day and say 'Well, we were down 10,'" Oswego East head coach Jim Vera said. "You win a game like this, you don't really think you can. I don't know how often you come back from being down that much, especially in a five-inning game."
Miller recorded the win in relief of Kishanov, who started and lasted two innings while he gave up eight runs (five earned) on five hits. He walked three and struck out three. Miller was touched for three runs in his first inning of work - the third - but recovered nicely and retired seven of the last eight hitters he faced. Miller wound up throwing three innings while he scattered four hits and three runs to go along with no walks and one strikeout.
"He's been a guy that's been pitching well for us all summer," Vera said. "I try not to have a lot of guys go five or six innings at a time. We'll start doing that a little bit next week. I'm trying to stretch them out to about four innings or so. He's playing on another team and he's traveling and I get to see him once a week pitching, and through his three or four inning stints, he's done a very nice job."
The Wolves are in a bit of transition before next spring arrives with the departure of several valuable seniors from last year's squad. But with the solid play of the next senior class in Kaczmarek, Smith and Klingbeil, among others, rebuilding might not enter the Wolves vocabulary once 2011 rolls around.
"We're getting guys into scoring position and getting guys around," Vera said. "Again, that's leadership from our seniors. That's the nice thing about this whole process is now they have to step up, and they are."
•Notes: The Wolves were scheduled to try to keep their four-game winning streak intact on Wednesday by hosting Montini, but results were unavailable at press time. Oswego East is set to play a doubleheader at 4 p.m. today, Thursday, at West Chicago.
-After today's doubleheader at West Chicago, the Wolves will host Waubonsie Valley in a doubleheader at 4 p.m. next Monday before playing a 4 p.m. doubleheader at Bolingbrook next Tuesday. Oswego East will play its final summer game before the start of the IHSBCA playoffs at 4 p.m. next Wednesday at Batavia.
-Oswego East swept Sandwich in a doubleheader at home on June 30, winning the first game 5-2 before closing out the second game 6-1.
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