Baseball: Grayslake Central wins another close one
Ben Fitzgerald hit 2 home runs and drove in 3 runs, helping lead Grayslake Central's baseball team to a 6-5 road win over Jacobs in Fox Valley Conference action on Thursday.
It was the third straight one-run win this week for the Rams (13-12).
Sam Nozicka and Benton Troehler both added doubles, and Kyle Allen had 2 singles to go along with a perfectly executed suicide squeeze that plated Ryan Mikes with what proved to be the winning run.
Junior Justin Shepley tossed a complete game, allowing 3 earned runs and fanning four with 1 walk.
Behind Fitzgerald, Central jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Jacobs tied the game at 3-3 after 4 innings. But the Rams responded over the next two innings, plating a pair on sacrifice flies by Nozicka and pinch hitter Ryan Casper and the Allen squeeze.
Jacobs had the tying runner on second base with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but Shepley induced a fly out to freshman Nic Presutti and a game-ending popup to catcher Nozicka.
Wauconda 8, Carmel 6: Greg LePage and Collin Shrader hit doubles in a two-run sixth, as the host Bulldogs pulled out the nonconference game.
Shrader finished 2-for-2 with 2 runs scored, 2 doubles and 3 RBI. Wauconda (17-4) also got two-hit games from Luke Weller, Brian McFarlin and LePage. Trevor Sefcik pitched 2 scoreless, no-hit innings in relief to earn the win.
For Carmel, Joey Lake homered, while Matt Collins was 2-for-4 with a double. Eddie Pietschmann was 2-for-3, and Austin Ehren and Cooper Johnson (1-for-2, 2 walks) doubled as well.
Warren 8, Westmont 3: The Blue Devils hit the 20-win mark, as Luke Schmitt and Robert Archbold doubled.
Eric Ripley picked up the win, as Warren improved to 20-5.
Prairie Ridge 3, Grayslake North 0: Jake DaMore and Danny Yates were both 2-for-3 for the Knights in their Fox Valley loss.
Cary-Grove 6, Lake Zurich 3: The Bears led 3-0 after five innings but saw the Trojans scored once in the sixth and three times in the seventh.
Austin Wells had a double for Lake Zurich.