Crystal Lake South duo stymies Elgin

From the Crystal Lake South baseball team's point of view, Tuesday's 1-0 win at Elgin was a thrilling exhibition of left-handed pitching mastery backed by errorless defense.

From the Maroons' perspective, it was a frustrating afternoon of missed opportunities leading to a wasted gem by right-handed starting pitcher Clay White.

CL South lefty hurlers John Constantino and Tyler Carlson combined to stymie the Maroons on 3 hits.

Constantino tossed 4 innings. He allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and struck out 7. His key moment came in the third inning. After the Maroons loaded the bases via an error and 2 walks, he induced an inning-ending popup off the bat of Elgin cleanup hitter Scotty Palmer.

Constantino was helped in the third inning by catcher Nick Van Witzenburg, who picked off an Elgin runner at second base when the Maroons had men at first and second with no outs.

"I was just trying to get ahead and trying to throw strikes," said Constantino, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound senior. "I was just trying to make good pitches. I thought my changeup was working really well, so I relied on that and trusted my defense."

Carlson entered the game in the fifth and was able to throw a sharp curveball consistently for strikes. He allowed a clean single to left by the first man he faced, Elgin No. 9 hitter Kirtan Patel, who eventually reached third base with two outs via Ryan Anderson's sacrifice bunt and an Eddy Ramos' groundout to shortstop Garrett Bright.

However, Carslon quashed the threat when he coaxed White into hitting another groundball toward Bright, who slickly picked up a tough hop near the second base bag and fired to first to end the inning.

Carlson retired the final nine Maroons he faced to complete the shutout.

"Coach is always telling me to be ready whenever we need you," the 5-foot-10, 150-pound junior said. "(Constantino) really set it up for us. He kept all the batters off balance. He kept it up and I just went and finished it."

CL South (4-1) scored the only run it needed against Elgin (1-4) in the third inning. No. 8 hitter John Smerecky legged out a leadoff double and advanced to third on a passed ball.

One out later, senior Collin Chubb smacked the first pitch of his at-bat past Elgin's third baseman for a 1-0 lead. The RBI single was redemption for Chubb, who opened the game by taking two strikes from White before swinging at strike 3 on a 1-2 count.

"After my first at-bat I wasn't too happy that I wasn't aggressive enough," Chubb said. "I came up the second time and was pretty confident I'd be swinging. I just got something I liked and tried to get the runner in and get on base."

Chubb's RBI was the only offense the Gators mustered against White. The 5-10, 150-pound senior consistently busted right-handed hitters in on their hands with a tailing four-seam fastball. He used his changeup effectively early in the game before relying more on his curve late. He held the Gators to an earned run on 4 hits, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts in a 94-pitch complete game.

"I was trying to get them to swing at pitches that would force contact and force plays in the field to get outs," said White (0-2). "I wasn't really throwing for strikeouts, just trying to trust my fielders."

Patel, Jack Koeckritz and Andrew Hardt had the only hits for Elgin. The first six hitters in the Elgin lineup went 0-for-14 combined with 8 strikeouts.

"A team like we have, we might struggle to score some runs at certain times during games," Elgin coach David Foerster said. "It's just on us to manufacture and do our best to get guys in."