THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2006

Maine West Hits Early, Often In 15-1 Victory

By ANDY COLE

Journal Reporter

Maine West's game at New Trier was cut a bit short Tuesday, postponed due to darkness with the Warriors trailing 16-7 after six innings.

Wednesday's game with Lane Tech was short, as well, but you won't hear any of the Warriors complaining about it.

Kyle O'Toole threw a two-hitter, and Maine West needed just one pitch in its half of the first to get a lead it would never lose in a 15-1, slaughter-rule pounding of the defending City League champion Indians. Tyler Ladendorf, Dan Gutierrez and Mike Santa Maria had three hits each for the Warriors (7-3).

"We just came out swinging," Maine West coach Chris Addante said. "We wanted to be aggressive with the bats today and that's what we did. We got guys on base and moved them along, and once a couple of guys did that for us it started to snowball."

West right fielder Andrew Rosset made a diving catch on a shot by Daniel Serrano for the first out of the game, and O'Toole went on to retire the first five hitters he faced. In the bottom of the first, leadoff hitter Ladendorf put the first pitch he saw from Lane Tech's J.P. Palazon well over the fence in right-center. Mike Lankford followed that with a double. Ryan Johann pinch-ran for Lankford and later scored on a one-out single by Todd Feingold.

The Warriors scored seven runs in the second inning. Santa Maria led off the inning with a base hit before scoring on a single by Ladendorf, and also finished the scoring in the inning when his double brought home Gutierrez and Rosset to make it a 9-0 game. In between, West took advantage of two Lane Tech (7-7) errors and strung together three two-out singles off the bats of Ryan Willett, Gutierrez and Rosset.

Addante was just as happy with his team's defensive effort as he was with the offensive outburst.

"We've been putting an emphasis on laying out to make the big play defensively," Addante said. "That's what Andrew did on that play. Santa Maria did that when he turned a huge double play for us. We've focused on putting the effort in at practice so those kind of plays become routine during a game.

"It seemed like everybody hit the ball well, and hopefully this is a game that we can use as a confidence-builder. We want to be able to carry this momentum into next week."

Lane Tech, which had more errors (three) than hits, got on the board in the third inning. David Pena reached on an error and scored when Adam Kubes singled. O'Toole allowed baserunners in every inning but the first, but did not give up an earned run in the game. He struck out four and walked five.

"Kyle's got a tendency to get real stiff if he's sitting for too long," Addante said of the long waits for O'Toole while Maine West batted around. "Because of that, it took him awhile each inning to kind of re-establish the strike zone. Once he got loose, though, he did a very nice job."

Maine West tacked on six runs in the bottom of the fourth, and inning that began with singles by Willett and Gutierrez. After a groundout, the next six Warriors reached base. Ladendorf's double scored Peter Pappas. Run-scoring hits followed for Lankford and Steve Moss.

Santa Maria finished 3-for-3 with two runs and three RBI. Ladendorf had three runs and four RBI to go with his hits and Lankford scored and drove in a run. Willet (two runs) contributed two hits to West's 17-hit attack. Rosset also singled and scored, Johann scored three runs and Pappas crossed the plate twice.

The Warriors were scheduled to host Waukegan today and go to Maine South Monday. Central Suburban League North play then starts with a Tuesday trip to Highland Park.