There was a lot of rain at the MCHS baseball diamond Monday afternoon.
Not only was most of the Southwest Prairie Conference contest spiced by constant raindrops ... but the Plainfield North Tigers rained base hits all around the park.
North, now 8-0 in the SPC, battered a trio of Morris pitchers for 16 hits while posting a 15-0 blanking of the Redskins in a game finished a couple of minutes before a heavy rain began to fall.
The win went to Alex Molek, who backed his own cause with a solo home run in a 4-run first for the Tigers.
"He pitched one inning on Saturday," said North coach John Darlington. "But that was his first start. That's one of the things about this conference. What are you going to do? Both teams were down on pitching. That's the bad part about pitching in this conference. You have to double up."
The game was a make-up of a rainout from last Tuesday. But as Darlington noted, the Monday contest will be followed by another 3-game set starting Tuesday. Morris will host Oswego East.
"We got out-played," noted Redskins coach Todd Kein. "That's the story of the game. They came after us and we could not match them. It wasn't from lack of effort. It was just their day."
The Tigers day began with the visitors batting around in the top of the first. Leadoff batter Mike Klett singled to right before Zach Pacanowski drew a full-count walk. Klett and courtesy runner Mike McGeevy scored on a double to left-center by Andrew Starks, who rounded second too far and was thrown out 7-6-4 (Ryan Burling to Josh DeGraaf to Andrew Bennett).
That made a follow-up homer by Andrew Molek (over the shorter tree in left-center) just a solo shot. A walk, a hit batter and an RBI double by Travis Hawks made it 4-0.
Neither team scored in the second, with the Tigers stranding McGreevy (courtesy runner for Pacanowski, who singled to center) and Alex Molek (single to left).
Morris lefty starter Tom Finnegan (tagged with the loss in his first decision of the year) did not retire a hitter as North doubled its advantage against him in the third frame. Mike Molek walked before Tim Eulitz singled. Hawks then struck out but reached first base (Mike Molek scored on the passed ball) when the ball went to the screen. Designated hitter Casey Wilgosiewicz followed by lining a 3-run homer over the centerfield fence.
Kein replaced Finnegan with sophomore Kjeld Torkelson at this point. Torkelson gave up 7 runs while facing his way through the order. The lone out he notched was a sac fly to right by Mike Molek. Pacanowski had an RBI single and Starks an RBI double before Wilgosiewicz chipped in with an RBI single to right. Klett greeted reliever DeGraaf with a 2-run single to right to make it 15-0.
DeGraaf retired the next 6 batters he faced, surrendering just a walk and a pinch single to Jordan Sherman, to close it out.
Alex Molek gave up a walk to DeGraaf in the first before Burling legged out a single to short in the third. North reliever Dan Maton gave up a single by Bret Borgstrom that plopped close to the rightfield line in the fourth.
"We hit the ball hard," said Darlington. "That was the difference."
Hard enough to wind up with a 16-2 advantage in hits. Klett, Pacanowski, Starks, Alex Molek, Eulitz, Hawks and Wilgosiewicz had a pair of hits apiece for the Tigers, now 8-0 in the SPC and 11-3 on the season.
The Redskins tumble to 2-7 in the Southwest Prairie. Morris is 5-13 overall.