Baseball: Plainfield Central breezes past Plainfield East

PLAINFIELD – When you have a baseball team with momentum, as Plainfield Central clearly has, that team starts to believe that just about anything is possible.

Plainfield Central made things look easy Tuesday afternoon, as it breezed to its ninth consecutive victory with a 13-0, five-inning triumph over Plainfield East.

“It’s a funny game. Makes you wonder whether or not you like it when you’re playing terrible, but when things are going well, things go really well,” Plainfield Central coach John Rosner said. “We’re playing really well, and the boys are having fun. Coach Hanley and I are having fun, and we just love being around a group of kids that come out every day and work hard.

“We’re hoping to ride it as long as possible.”

Plainfield Central (18-5, 7-3 Southwest Prairie) set the tone early by scoring three runs in the first inning. The big blow in the inning came from Colin Bailye, who hit a triple that drove in two runs.

It was the beginning of a big day for Bailye, who would reach all four times and had two singles that each brought in two runs during a nine-run fourth inning where the Wildcats sent 14 batters to the plate. Bailye finished with six RBIs.

“I feel like I’m seeing it well,” Bailye said, “getting a lot of barrels. I’m really just trying to do my job at the plate when there are runners on.”

There were plenty of opportunities for batters to hit with runners on base. After the three-run first inning, Plainfield Central was only able to add one run over the next two innings, but left the bases loaded in each.

The explosive fourth inning almost seemed inevitable. The first six Plainfield Central batters reached, and after two outs were recorded the Wildcats strung together another run of five consecutive batters who reached.

Six of Plainfield Central’s 10 hits came in the inning, leading to the 10-run mercy rule.

Things were significantly more difficult for Plainfield East (5-15, 2-9) with the bats. Plainfield Central pitcher Danny Doherty held the Bengals to only three hits, and only one Plainfield East baserunner managed to reach third base.

Walks and errors led to a bit of traffic on the base paths for East, but each time Doherty found a way to squelch it. He finished with five strikeouts and largely allowed his defense to provide the support he needed.

“Danny threw well,” Rosner said. “He’s not going to overpower anyone, but if he throws strikes and we play defense behind him we’ve got a good chance to put zeros up on the scoreboard.”

J.T. Augustyniak and Taylor Kujak also had two-hit performances for Central.

East’s hits were earned by Jacob Rosenquist, Oscar Lopez and Aaron Paszowski.