Baseball: Barrington beats Maine South despite getting no-hit

Go ahead, call Barrington baseball coach Pat Wire an aggressive third-base coach. He'd agree with you.

But don’t label him a micromanager.

“I trust my players in all kinds of situations,” said Wire after his Broncos edged host Maine South 2-1 Tuesday morning in sunny, chilly Park Ridge. “We talk about situations at practices. We count on our guys to be anticipatory.

“(Senior relief pitcher) Trevor Naughten,” he added, “read that situation and anticipated well today.”

That situation: 0-0 game, bottom of the fourth inning, bases loaded with Maine South Hawks, 2 outs, 3-2 count on Hawks senior second baseman Jack Etchason.

Naughten, a starting pitcher most of last season, pivoted on the mound and picked off a scrambling Hawk between second and third base.

End of threat, end of inning.

“Baserunning mistake,” Maine South coach Brian Lorenz said. “We made three of them today.”

A relieved — and energized — crew of Broncos struck for a run in the top of the next inning, thanks to a walk to designated hitter Jackson Cavaliero, a sacrifice bunt off the bat of shortstop Jackson Roberts, and senior Jacob Dorn’s sharply hit grounder to the right side of the infield.

“Just tried to put the ball in play,” Dorn recalled.

The ball took a bad bounce, ricocheted off a shoulder and scooted toward the first-base bag, prompting a bold Wire to wave Cavaliero home.

“I thought it was a hit,” Wire said.

“That was an error,” Lorenz insisted. “That play has to be made.”

“I respect,” Wire said, “that Brian expected his infielder to make a clean play on a tough grounder like that.”

The home team typically serves as the game’s official scorer, meaning Maine South lost Tuesday’s game 2-1 — without allowing a hit.

Hawks junior starting pitcher Nick Conway (0-2) absorbed the tough loss, striking out 3 and walking 2 in 5 innings. He needed only 4 pitches to retire the side in order in the second inning.

“Nick was (not happy) after I pulled him,” Lorenz said. “But I did it because it’s early in the season and it was the right thing to do.

“I was glad he reacted that way. Who wants a pitcher who wants to be taken out of a close game?”

Barrington (3-1-1) went up 2-0 in the top of the sixth inning when Roberts drew a bases-loaded walk. Walks to junior Tommy Abbatemarco (2 BBs) and senior Julian Ashley-Friedman, followed by Caid Heick’s sac bunt and a hit by pitch (Cavaliero) had set up the packed situation for Roberts.

“A small-ball kind of game,” said Cavaliero.

Maine South (1-2) scored its lone run in the bottom of the frame, getting an RBI single from cleanup hitter Eric Fugate after senior center fielder Constantine Coines’ resounding 2-out double — the game’s only extra base hit — to left-center.

Coines went 2-for-3 in the matinee.

Naughten, who relieved lefty starter Will Renshaw after 3 innings, allowed 3 hits in 4 innings, fanning 2 and walking only 1. But the stat of the day was his pick-4 (pickoff play in the fourth inning).

“We started out flat,” admitted Wire. “Then we woke up.”

Hawks senior Jake Zabratanski threw 1 and 1/3 innings of no-hit relief, striking out 3 and issuing 1 walk.

“I liked our pitching, and we had good swings, good at-bats,” Lorenz said. “We needed to be better in that other phase (baserunning).”

Tuesday’s win was Wire’s 275th in 12-plus seasons at Barrington, tying him with Jim Hawrysko for second on the all-time list of wins by a Broncos baseball coach. Leader Kirby Smith won 543 games in 22 seasons.