South Elgin’s Thorson delivers in clutch

South Elgin’s Tyler Thorson might be in line for some more playing time after his clutch performance Friday.

Making his first start of the season, Thorson drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. The senior left fielder then threw out a runner at the plate for the game’s final out to finish off the Storm’s 3-2 Upstate Eight crossover victory against visiting Elgin.

“(Thorson) got an opportunity and made the most of it today,” South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. “He won the game for us. He got a base hit, he threw somebody out and he was a senior who came up big.”

South Elgin (3-1, 3-0) trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Thorson came around to score from second on Ryan Nutof’s two-out, pinch-hit double. Two innings later it was Thorson providing the big hit when he singled up the middle to drive home Joe Crivolio and give the Storm its first lead of the game.

Elgin (0-4, 0-3) made things interesting when its first two batters in the top of the seventh reached safely. There were still runners at first and second when Isaac Narayan stepped in the batter’s box with two outs and laced a single to left, but Thorson fired a laser to the plate that beat base runner James Stearns by several steps as he tried to score the tying run from second.

“We’re going to have to win games off pitching and defense,” Thorson said. “We lost some big bats that we had last year, but we’re coming up in the clutch (so far this year).”

Jacob Hicks (1-0) earned the win on the mound for South Elgin after tossing two scoreless innings in relief of starter Tyler Brown.

The Maroons pushed across a pair of runs in the top of the first but came up empty the rest of the way. Narayan was 3-for-4 and Nick Turner was 2-for-3 with two RBI for Elgin.

Ryan Sitter (0-1) was tagged with the loss after allowing three earned runs on six hits in six innings. The junior struck out nine, walked five and seemed to labor down the stretch as he issued a walk and three straight singles to the first four batters he faced in the decisive sixth inning.

“It wasn’t a question of arm fatigue,” Sitter said. “I had a disruption in my mechanics and I was trying to overthrow things. It’s just a question of staying within myself and not trying to overdo it.”

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