• Class A Midwest League:
Burlington takes 9-4 win
over Kane County
to win semifinal round.
By Gary Hadenfeldt; The Hawk Eye
GENEVA,Ill. -- Just about every little kid dreams about hitting a home run to win the big game.
Burlington Bees first baseman Eric Battersby didn't stop with just one home run, he hit four.
Battersby's unbelievable feat helped propel the Bees to a 9-6 win over the Kane County
Cougars in the third and final game of a Class A Midwest league baseball semifinal playoff series Monday
at Elfstrom Stadium.
After losing the opening game of the series 12-0 Friday at Community Field, Burlington took the series 2-1 and advanced to meet the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in a best-of-five-game series to determine the Midwest League Champion.
The first two games of the Championship series are tonight and Wednesday night at Community Field. The series moves to Wisconsin for a third game Thursday night and a fourth and fifth game, if necessary, Friday and Saturday.
It is the first time a Burlington team has reached the finals since 1977.
Battersby and teammate Terrell Merriman both hit three home runs in a game during the regular season, and former Bee Darron Ingram did it for Clinton against the Bees this season.
"I've never seen anything like that in a game like that since I've been in baseball," Bees manager Nick Capra said.
"There's really not much I can say," said Battersby, who had two two-run shots and two solo blasts. "I've never really done anything like that before. My best was three in a game, I hit three in a game twice - once in college and once in pro ball. Both times were pretty much blowout games, but tonight all four of them pretty much had significance."
All but overshadowed by Battersby's incredible performance were Ryan Hankins' solo shot and two-RBI single, plus another strong pitching performance by Matt Ginter.
Ginter turned in seven innings to pickup the win. Ginter now has won his last six starts, and the Bees have won the last seven games Ginter has started.
Battersby's first blast led off the top of the second inning and gave the Bees a 1-0 lead.
The Cougars came back with three runs in the third to grab a 3-1 advantage. Three straight one-out singles and a two-out single did the damage.
But Ginter recovered, and retired 14 of the next 17 batters to keep the Cougars scoreless over the next four innings.
"That's going to happen," Ginter said of the three-run inning. "You can't go through the whole game without anybody scoring most of the time. Once you (give up) a couple runs or something you just have to hold them there and hopefully your offense will come back and score a couple."
"Ginter did a heck of a job," Capra said. "They got that three-spot on him and he just settled down and did a great job. He got in a nice rhythm and kept us in the ballgame."
Burlington took the lead for good in the fifth inning.
Ender Gonzalez led off the inning with a single, and Chad Durham put Gonzalez on third with a double. Hankins drove in both runs with a single to left, chasing starting pitcher Claudio Vargas.
Reliever Nathan Robertson retired the first two Bees he faced, but Battersby's second homer gave Burlington a 5-3 lead.
Battersby's third blast, another two-run shot, in the seventh, and Hankin's solo homer in the eighth put the Bees up 8-3.
Kane County managed another three-run inning in the eighth. Ginter threw eight consecutive pitches out of the strike zone to walk the first two batters in the inning.
Capra went to the bullpen in Brandon Whatley, who struck out the first man he faced. But Matt Treanor powered a three-run homer to left before Whatley could get out of the inning.
Battersby took out what wind was left in Kane County's sails with his fourth home run, a solo shot over the wall in left-center with one out in the ninth.
"I was just looking to hit the ball," Battersby said. "(Reliever Brad Farizo) is a two seam pitcher, usually doesn't get the ball up. I knew he had a tendency to with Hankins hitting one out, but I was just looking for a pitch to drive, and he gave me one. He threw a first-pitch strike and then off-speed for a ball. I knew pretty much he was going to come back with a fastball."
Whatley had to get four outs in the bottom of the ninth. After Whatley set down the first two Cougars, Jose Santos struck out but reached safely on a wild pitch. Whatley came back to strike out Jeff Bailey to end the game.
The Bees now head home for the first two games of the league championship series.
"We have some momentum going in right now," Ginter said. "We came here and won two, our hitters are coming back and our pitchers are pitching well. We're going into the series in the game mode. Wisconsin had two days off, and we're going home. That maybe gives us a little advantage."
"Everybody wants to play for the ring," Battersby said. "This was big. The momentum will definitely carry over."
"We came in these guys' backyard and beat them two straight after they pounded us at home," Capra said. "That was something I don't think a lot of people expected, other than these guys that went out there and played the game."
