Hawkins elevates Buffalo Grove

Robert Hawkins spent a long time of his Buffalo Grove varsity baseball career on an “L” trip which seemed to have no end.

Now the senior left-hander is enjoying a ride where almost every start stops at a much happier destination. Hawkins ended up with his fourth consecutive “W” on Monday afternoon as he threw a 4-hitter to lead Buffalo Grove to a 4-0 victory over visiting Wheeling in a Class 4A Stevenson regional quarterfinal.

“I was pretty much thinking of anything I can do to win,” said Hawkins of a streak of 15 appearances the last two seasons where he was saddled with the defeat or no-decision in BG losses. “It’s a good thing it’s started to fall into place for me.

“It was a big relief because I was waiting for that first one for a long time. The first one is always the hardest but now that I’ve gotten on a roll of winning I want to keep rolling.”

BG (15-21), the 15th seed in the Glenbrook South sectional, will get another chance at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when Jeremy Berger starts against No. 2 Glenbrook North at Stevenson. Hawkins had 8 strikeouts and no walks as he threw 60 of his 88 pitches for strikes.

No. 18 Wheeling (1-32) finished the season with its 27th consecutive loss and without first-year coach Matt Padron in uniform as varsity assistant Pete Ogilvie and sophomore coach Jason Wieder ran the team. Wheeling assistant principal for student activities Steve May wouldn’t say whether Padron was fired or resigned and Padron did not respond to phone messages and an email request seeking comment.

“We’ll figure out what direction we’re going in and why we’re going in a new direction,” May said Monday morning. “It’s too bad we are where we are right now.”

Hawkins wants to stay right where he is and would love another shot to keep this streak going if BG were able to pull an upset and reach a regional final. He threw a 5-inning no-hitter with 7 walks against Wheeling two weeks ago, but this time he went to a 3-ball count on only three hitters and his only freebie was hitting Nick Ricciardi with two outs in the seventh.

“Just the fact that I was more consistent in the strike zone helped out a lot more,” said Hawkins, who is considering Harper, Aurora and North Central to pitch in college. “I had more confidence.”

All six of Hawkins’ strikeouts in the first three innings came on fastballs as he was able to work up in the strike zone with a strong wind blowing in.

“I thought he located his fastball well and got ahead with his fastball,” said BG coach Jeff Grybash. “He did a nice job of elevating with two strikes early in the game.

“He just wasn’t getting any wins. Now he’s starting to get some wins come his way, which he has certainly earned and deserved.”

All 6 of BG’s hits were doubles and the first two by Jimmy Pinakidis and Jake Fanella gave Hawkins the only run he needed in the first. Alex Fritz and Pinakidis had back-to-back doubles in the third and Ryan Schumi doubled in a run in the fourth and scored on Erich Froemming’s sacrifice fly.

Sophomore starter Angelo Deblasio retired nine of the last 12 hitters for Wheeling. Junior David Shapiro, sophomores Josh Kim and George Alimissis and freshman Nathan Cooney singled in a lineup with no seniors.

“We’re young and we made some young mistakes and went after a lot of bad pitches,” Ogilvie said. “I thought Angelo did a nice job. He got a couple of pitches up at the wrong time but he battled back and had a bulldog mentality.

“We didn’t (go through the motions). We have a good core here but we have to get more reps and we have to play, play, play.”