Baseball: Schaefer, Grayslake North find their way past Palatine

Pat Schaefer and Grayslake North continue to find a way.

Schaefer pitched a complete game and his teammates scored a pair of unearned runs as Grayslake North edged Palatine 2-1 Thursday in the semifinals of the Class 4A regional at Buffalo Grove.

Grayslake North (22-9), the No. 9 seed in the Glenbrook South sectional, will meet top-seeded Buffalo Grove at 11 a.m. Saturday for the BG regional title.

"This group of kids, they just win," Grayslake North coach Brett Hill said. "It is not pretty. Sometimes I wish the bats were better. But at the end of the day, these kids just battle."

Both teams had to battle and try to overcome the stout pitching by Schaefer and Palatine's Evan Daly.

Not only did they nearly match each other pitch for pitch, but their teammates matched each other with great defensive plays.

Grayslake North shortstop Declan Peterson made a pair of solid plays while catcher Austin DeLao threw out a runner. Even Schaefer got into it, snaring a line drive.

Not to be outdone, Palatine's Jack Grochowski made a sweet sliding catch of a sinking foul ball, and shortstop Jack Hopper started an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Second baseman Josh Stitt robbed a batter as leaped for a line drive and took away another hit when he went far to his left to throw out a batter.

With the stellar pitching and sensational defense, the teams went scoreless through the first 5 innings.

Grayslake North broke through in the top of the sixth when Andrew Keaskowski led off the inning with his second hit of the day, a double to left-center.

"I usually lead off, but coach moved me to the 9-spot so I could see more fastballs," Keaskowski said. "And that's all I saw. I was able to get one that I could drive."

After a walk, Keaskowski moved to third on a wild pitch. He then scored on an error as Grayslake North took a 1-0 lead.

Palatine (20-14), which had just 3 hits off a Schaefer, found some offense in its half of the sixth.

Grochowski led off with a sharp single to left. J.T. Streepy then belted the ball off the wall in far left-center and Grochowski wheeled his way home to tie the game at 1.

The Pirates continued to threaten when TJ Skelnik reached on an infield error to put runners on the corners with just one out. Palatine then fouled off a suicide squeeze. And when the Pirates tried a safety squeeze, the pitch was missed and the runner from third was caught and tagged out in a rundown.

"It wasn't a squeeze, but a safety squeeze," Palatine coach Paul Belo said. "And it turned out to be a mistake on the bases. We just couldn't capitalize on the opportunity."

Grayslake North began the seventh with a leadoff single by Regen Marsell. Charlie Burr followed with a single that slipped through the outfielder's legs, and Marsell came all the way around from first to score the go-ahead run.

"It was nerve-wracking spot to be in," Burr said. "I saw a curveball deep, and I hit up the middle and we ended up scoring on it."

Palatine made one last run.

Down to the last strike, the Pirates' Josh Stitt fouled off a couple of pitches before drawing a walk. Weber followed with an infield single, with Stitt never stopping running and ending up on third. But Schaefer beared down and got a groundout to end the game.

"It was tough out there, but I had my stuff working so all is good," Schaefer said. "My defense made some plays behind me and that helped. There was a lot of pressure at the end, but we came through it."

Hill said he was impressed with Schaefer.

"Schaefer was awesome and we made the plays behind him," Hill said. "And we hit just enough to win. Execute when you need to."

Belo said that his team just came up a bit short.

"We have been in these type of games before and came through," Belo said. "We just couldn't do it today."