Baseball: Vernon Hills is right on the money against Grant
Just like throwing a football, accuracy is just as important as velocity.
Connor McNamara would know. So the Vernon Hills senior wasn't going to complain about his one-out, seeing-eye groundball skimmed off the hand of Grant second baseman Matt Mason. The baseball trickled into center field to plate the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning of Tuesday's North Suburban Prairie Division game.
"I was just trying to hit the ball," McNamara said after finishing 1-for-2 with a pair of walks and 2 runs scored. "Strikeouts hurt. Put some pressure (on the defense)."
Nick Marras provided an insurance run with an RBI double, as Vernon Hills won 4-2 in Fox Lake.
"Today was a huge win," coach Jay Czarnecki said after his Cougars improved to 5-6 and 2-0 in the NSC Prairie, while dropping Grant to 9-2 and 2-1. The teams rematch Wednesday at Vernon Hills.
McNamara, who quarterbacked Vernon Hills' varsity football team for the last three years, throwing for more than 5,000 career yards and earning all-state honors last fall, plans to play both football and baseball at NAIA Robert Morris University in Chicago. He had not been hitting the ball with great authority this spring.
"I'm putting the bat on the ball, but I am struggling a little bit," said McNamara, the Cougars' lefty-hitting shortstop "Especially when there are runners on base, it's tough when you let the team down. (On the go-ahead RBI single), I was just trying to hit through the top half of the ball and put something on the ground, hopefully up the middle."
Grant's defense had problems all game. The Bulldogs also struggled against Vernon Hills starting pitcher Brad Larsen and relievers Joe Rangel (1 IP, win) and Tommy Earhart (1 IP, 2 strikeouts, save), mustering just 3 hits.
"We kicked it around, and we popped up and struck out," Grant coach Dave Behm said. "That isn't what we've done all year. But we did it today when it mattered."
Making his third start of the season, Larsen pitched 5 innings of two-hit ball, striking out five, walking one and hitting a batter. He retired the first nine batters he faced, before Logan Lewis led off the Grant fourth with a single to right. Michael Bengston's two-out, two-run double in fourth gave Grant a 2-1 lead. Both runs were unearned.
"(Grant) did a good job in (the fourth) inning of putting the ball hard on the ground," Czarnecki said. "But (Larsen) has been great all year."
Larsen, a 6-foot-2 junior right-hander, got a no-decision. He threw seven innings in a game in Alabama that Vernon Hills won in nine innings.
"My approach this year has been, 'If you throw strikes, (batters) will typically find ways to get themselves out,' " Larsen said. "Sometimes I need to get strikeouts in certain situations, but I try to pitch to contact, and it usually works out."
Grant starting pitcher Bryan Libby also pitched 5 innings and got a no-decision, scattering 5 hits, walking four and striking out five. Only 1 of the 2 runs he allowed was earned. The senior right-hander has emerged as the Bulldogs' ace, beating both Warren and Barrington.
Vernon Hills evened the score in the fifth when, after catching a popup, Libby threw the ball into center field, allowing Earhart to score from third.
"I was screaming (for him to throw the ball to second base)," Behm said. "We just shouldn't have thrown that ball. I was thinking, 'We're going to get out of a jam here,' especially with where we were at in the batting order. We felt like we had a good shot to get the (No. 8 hitter) out."
Besides Marras (2-for-4), Matt Gramins (2-for-3) also doubled and drove in a run for Vernon Hills.