Anthony Wilson tried to use a bunt to inject “a little chaos” into what seemed to be too orderly of an end to Jacobs’ summer baseball season.
It didn’t work out Thursday, but Golden Eagles coach Jamie Murray appreciated the effort just the same.
Jacobs suffered a 3-1 loss to Prospect in the semifinals of the Lake Park Regional, trying to bounce back for the third straight game in the Phil Lawler Summer Classic.
“We were bunting for a hit, just trying to make something happen, and come back like we’ve been doing all along,” Wilson said.
Trailing 3-1 in the seventh inning, Jacobs (10-5-1) put runners at second and third when Cam Arvidson reached on an error, Bryan Belo singled and Daniel Murphy sacrificed.
Murray opted to have Wilson bunt for a hit rather than squeeze. Reliever Mack Malczewski calmly fielded it, looked the runner back to third and threw for the out at first.
Prospect (8-4) then ended the game as Malczewski induced a groundout to short.
“We had Anthony bunt for a hit because we were trying to cause a little chaos,” Murray said. “A wild throw or a lot of things can happen. Anthony is a good athlete and might beat it out, and then you’ve got the bases loaded.
“They might panic and throw the ball away if you create some confusion between the third baseman and pitcher. The bunt went too close to the pitcher. It didn’t work out, but I’m proud of our effort.”
Jacobs was forced into scrapping for runs after using the heavy lumber earlier in the tournament to beat Burlington Central 11-10 and Streamwood 6-5.
Winning Prospect pitcher Bryce Jenson proved too efficient, allowing five hits and no earned runs with three strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. Jacobs catcher Liam Oreskovich said it wasn’t all Jenson.
“We were just missing it,” Oreskovich said. “We just kept getting under balls. That’s all right. It happens. It wasn’t our day at the plate. We were making contact — just not solid contact.”
Nine times Jenson coaxed Jacobs into outfield flyouts.
Jacobs had Matt Camp back batting cleanup Thursday after he missed Wednesday’s quarterfinal win. Camp hit two home runs and a game-winning RBI single in the tournament-opening win over Burlington Central, but Jenson held him hitless.
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Camp, who walked and moved up on Bryan Belo’s single, scored Jacobs’ only run on a wild pitch in the second inning.
“Their pitcher did a good job with movement,” Camp said. “His ball was moving out a little bit and he had decent speed.”
Wilson took the loss after allowing John Czeslawski’s two-run single in the first and a sacrifice fly in the third by Anthony Catalano.
“I think they were just hitting it to the right side,” Wilson said. “My breaking ball wasn’t going how I wanted, so I should have gone maybe more to the fastball.”
Jacobs expects to return 18 of it 25 players from last season’s spring team.
“This was a tough loss but we’ll be fine by next season,” Oreskovich said. “This was good because we made it kind of far and all of us were playing well together.”
Twitter @genechamberlai2