Raiders baseball vs. St. Charles March 11, 2019

After falling behind 0-2 in its season series with St. Charles, Three Rivers dominated the third game and almost tied the series at two wins apiece in the fourth. In the final game of the doubleheader, it looked as though the Raiders were about to pull away for a win and even the series for a moment. Both teams were locked at one apiece for two innings when Three Rivers (9-7) came alive offensively. Nick Fakouri hit a leadoff single to right field to start the inning. Errors from St. Charles helped the Raiders’ cause on back-to-back plays. Zach Salyers tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt but reached first on an error. Then, a failed pickoff put him on second and Fakouri at third. Drew Evans came up with a huge single to score Fakouri and give the Raiders their first lead of the game. “That was a good two-strike at-bat. (Evans) didn’t try to do too much and just went with the pitch and found the barrel. He hit a nice line drive to left that was really a clutch situation for us there,” Three Rivers coach Stacey Burkey said. Salyers scored on a wild pitch to widen the gap. The errors kept piling up for St. Charles as another wild pitch allowed Evans to safely reach home for the final run of the side. Austin Williams came in for Nash Winters on the mound and threw three straight strikeouts to put the Raiders back on offense with momentum and a chance to grow their lead. Winters pitched five innings, allowing three hits and an earned run to go along with four strikeouts. “Nash Winters gave us a quality start,” Burkey said. “He’s been very consistent with his stuff here in the last month. I think he’s really settling in and doing a nice job as a starter.” Three Rivers loaded the bases with two outs, but Evans popped up to the second baseman to end the side. That was all the opportunity St. Charles needed to make a comeback. With the sunlight quickly dissipating and the ball getting harder to see, both coaches agreed the seventh inning would be the last. The vision issues affected just about everyone in the seventh. After a leadoff double, Eric Rothermich smoked a ball to center field. Ty’Reik Thomas chased it down and tried to make the catch at a full sprint, but the ball just missed his glove, allowing a run to score. With two on and two out, Williams looked to have delivered a strike down the middle for the final out of the game, but it was called a ball just inside. A few pitches later, the batter was inches away from going through with a swing, but the umpire determined he held up just enough. “That last inning it was tough calls, you know. It’s dark and we missed a ball that nine times out of 10 is going to be caught, but he couldn’t see it,” Burkey said. “It was a tough break when you’re trying to finish the game in the dark. I don’t know if that’s what affected the umpires as well, or if he just locked up. “We had a couple that we thought we had struck out two different times in that last inning that would’ve nailed down a W for us. But it’s tough to not pull that one out.” Again, St. Charles made the most of its opportunity. Seth Denoyer drilled a two-RBI single to tie the game at four before Williams got the final strikeout.