Hornets win 9th straight

Chris Suhajda came a few inches from hitting for the cycle Thursday at Hinsdale Central.

As it was, the Hinsdale South senior outfielder's single, home run, double and sacrifice fly to the center field fence provided plenty of impetus for the Hornets' 9-5 win.

"He hit the ball well today, the best he's hit the ball all year," Hinsdale South coach Kraig Conyer said. "That's nice to see. He's a great kid who works hard."

Conyer has seen plenty of nice things from his team, as the Hornets (12-9) ran their winning streak to nine in a row.

"They're all just coming together as a team," he said. "Our chemistry is a lot better and guys are playing hard the whole time. Different guys are stepping up. It's been a total team effort."

Suhajda began the fireworks Thursday when he smashed a leadoff home run to erase a 1-0 Red Devil lead in the top of the fourth inning.

The rest of the Hornets quickly joined in, as a single by Addison Cihlar (2-for-4), an RBI double off the center field fence by Zach Balcunas, an RBI single by Jerome Thomas (2-for-5) and a single by Ryan Hopp (2-for-4) led to a four-run inning. Thomas capped the uprising by scoring on the front end of a double steal with Hopp.

Hinsdale Central (16-4) had its own power show, blasting three home runs in the losing effort. Colin Cimala led the way with solo homers in the fourth and sixth innings, the latter a clout to center field that traveled over 375 feet.

Will Lamb also crushed a solo home run over the center field fence leading off the fifth inning, and the Red Devils had taken a 1-0 lead in the third inning on consecutive doubles by Alex Bellusci and Tobi Adeyemi (whose grounder hit the third base bag).

"We have to stop hitting home runs with nobody on," joked Hinsdale Central coach Tom Dorrance, whose team is enduring a not-so-funny stretch of games against Lyons Township (14-2 and 8-1 losses) and Hinsdale South.

Overshadowing the home runs were a pair of big innings by the Hornets.

After the four-run third and a fifth inning tally that came on a Suhajda double, a Cihlar single and a sacrifice fly by Jake Wielebnicki, Hinsdale South took advantage of Red Devil errors in a four-run, one-hit sixth inning.

A Thomas double was followed by consecutive infield errors that allowed Hopp, Joe Buonavolanto and Dom Tardi to reach and ultimately score. After Suhajda's deep fly was run down by Adeyemi on the warning track, Cihlar also reached on an error.

"We're just not playing the way we can play," Dorrance said. "I think we're playing with a different mindset since a week ago. We're almost playing not to lose, and we've got to break out of that."

The Red Devils made one last comeback bid in the seventh as Andrew Nicholas led off with a double and scored on Jack DiNardo's pinch-hit single.

But Hinsdale South relief pitcher Steve Roberts (two innings, two hits, one run) finished up for starter Mario DiCostanzo by retiring the final three hitters (the last on a strikeout).

The Hornets preceded the Red Devil win by beating Willowbrook 6-0 on Wednesday. Thomas pitched a complete-game six-hit shutout, while Hinsdale South took full advantage of its five hits.

The Hornets jumped ahead 1-0 in the second inning as Tardi walked, stole second and eventually came around to score on consecutive ground outs by Rich Jablonski and Suhajda (RBI).

The lead remained a slim one run until the sixth inning when the Hornets struck for three runs on just one hit for a 4-0 edge. Scott Norkus' leadoff single was followed by a hit batsmen, a walk and an error to produce the three runs.

More insurance came in the seventh on a Hopp double, a walk to Buonavolanto and a two-RBI double by Tardi.

Hinsdale Central had lost 8-1 to LT despite two hits by Drew Bailey and the eight-strikeout pitching of Nick Kurash. Brett Suchy singled and scored the Red Devils' lone run to briefly cut the deficit to 2-1.

Dave Owen's e-mail address is dowen@libertysuburban.com