Dundee-Crown's Salinas handles weather, Marengo

Dundee-Crown senior Edgar Salinas wound up for his first pitch to Marengo's Ty Sierpien with snowflakes in the air and a smile on his face.

He wasn't letting temperatures in the low 40 degrees and winds gusting at more than 20 mph dampen his spirits.

"It wasn't really ideal, I just had the mindset that we were playing no matter what," Salinas said. "I felt like that mindset really helped me out."

The mindset and pinpoint control, along with good zip on his fastball, served Salinas well. The right-hander struck out eight and allowed one hit as the Chargers defeated Marengo, 10-0, in five innings in a nonconference baseball game Friday.

Salinas worked a perfect first inning, after which the weather improved. Marengo's lone hit came in the second on Patrick Signore's ground ball between first and second.

That was the only time in the game when the Indians (3-1) had more than one runner on base. Ashten Valenti then hit the hardest ball Marengo had, a shot toward right-center field that 6-foot-5 right fielder Hunter Guyon ran down with his back to home plate, saving two runs.

Salinas faced the minimum nine batters the rest of the game.

"Being a senior, you want to see him improve and get better and he pitched well for us last year, but he was in the zone, he was living low, throwing strikes," Chargers coach Patrick Conlin said. "We had guys making plays behind him and that was a dominant performance. He did a really nice job."

Salinas worked fastballs and curveballs, with a few sliders mixed in to keep the Indians off the bases.

"The fastball command was really there," he said. "I was really painting the outside corner. The curve was working pretty good and the occasional slider really got them off-balance."

D-C catcher Matt Schuring sensed early on Salinas was in for a good day.

"Edgar was hitting his spots, his pitches were on, everything was looking really good and he was getting batters to swing and ground out or pop up," Schuring said. "He just had a great day. I felt it was very good day. Everything was just on."

Marengo starter Ty Sierpien struck out eight in three innings, but the Chargers benefitted from two third-strike wild pitches in the dirt, along with a tipped third strike that eluded Valenti, the Indians catcher.

Schuring had a full count with two outs when he tipped a ball that Valenti could not quite handle. Schuring then ripped a two-RBI double that led to a four-run inning.

"I thought (Sierpien) threw the ball well today," Marengo coach Nick Naranjo said. "We had an inning where he had strikeouts and guys ended up on first base, the ball just didn't bounce our way today, which is going to happen. He threw the ball extremely well and it just didn't go his way."

Jacob Guyon homered to lead off the third and Isaac Santos homered with one out in the fourth. Guyon and Santos, both right-handed hitters, were able to benefit from the wind blowing out to right field on their long balls.

"Today's one of my favorite days to talk to hitters," Conlin said. "We talk about right-center, left-center, working gap to gap and kind of going that way. You pull anything to left field it's going to die.

"You put something to the right side and the wind's going to toy with it. They're doing what we asked them to do. Some days it's going to go better than others."

In the bottom of the fifth, Schuring singled with two outs, Salinas doubled and Santos ended the game with a long single down the right-field line. It would have been a double, but when Nathaniel Rodriguez (Schuring's courtesy runner) scored, the game was over.

"(Salinas) is the best we've seen so far," Naranjo said. "He located his fastball really well and had a good curveball. He threw good pitches and kept us off-balance."