Baseball: Glenbard South's Garcia overcomes the tough times
Fabian Garcia's day on the mound consisted of five innings of cruise control sandwiched by two innings of terror.
He survived it all while leading Glenbard South's baseball team to victory over Wheaton Academy.
Behind the senior righty's 4-hitter with 9 strikeouts, the Raiders edged Wheaton Academy 2-0 in Monday's Metro Suburban West action in Glen Ellyn.
Garcia allowed only four baserunners from the second inning through the sixth. In the first and seventh inning, though, Garcia escaped pressure-packed bases-loaded jams without allowing a run.
With Warriors starting pitcher Payton Sowa also settling down after the first inning, Garcia knew he had to be near perfect in those tough spots.
"Those two innings were real scary," Garcia said with a laugh. "After that last out I was shaking. It was exciting. Everyone made their plays, so it was good."
After Garcia got out of the hard-hitting top of the first with a strikeout and a comebacker, Glenbard South (6-7, 4-3) scored both its runs in the bottom of the first. Kyle Carli singled home Lucas Lorusso and Sean Cooke tripled in courtesy runner Vince Marra.
That was it for the offense as both sides struggled with clutch hitting. Sowa struck out seven in six innings.
"We hit the ball hard today, we just hit it at people," said Warriors coach Brad Byrne, whose team fell to 6-7 overall and 2-2 in the MSC. "That's baseball. Their groundballs were finding holes and our line drives seemed to be finding their guys. But it's hard to get too frustrated because our guys are always putting us in a position to win. That's all you can ask."
Carli had 2 of Glenbard South's 6 hits while R.W. Rienow had 2 of Wheaton Academy's 4 hits.
"(Garcia) did a nice job," said Raiders coach Mike Riley. "It's always interesting to see how a kid responds to an inning like the first inning today, and he pitched well. He made some big pitches."
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