Baseball: Moe, Grayslake Central promptly bounce back

It didn't matter to Coby Moe that Northwestern and Valparaiso were scouting the Grayslake Central junior pitcher Wednesday.

It didn't matter that the Rams saw their unblemished record finally get nicked a day earlier.

It didn't matter that Grayslake Central got a chance to exact revenge against Antioch.

All that mattered for the 6-foot-4, 195-pound righty was that he was pitching.

"I want the ball every game, whether we won or lost the game before," said Moe, who was pitching in front of college coaches for the first time this season. "I always want to pitch for my team and come out here and perform. The loss (Tuesday) was unfortunate, but they were tough kids and they beat us. We knew we weren't going to go 35-0. That just doesn't happen in high school baseball."

Well, 34-1 is still a possibility.

With a little help from Antonio Crews, Moe got Grayslake Central back to its winning ways, beating visiting Antioch 3-1 a day after blowing a 4-0 lead against the Sequoits.

Moe, who entered game with an ERA under 1.00, improved to 4-0, as the Rams hiked their record to 16-1 and 7-1 in the Northern Lake County Conference. Pat Day homered for Antioch, which fell to 8-8 and 4-4 in the NLCC.

Moe pitched a complete game, throwing 96 pitches, including 67 for strikes. He allowed only 3 hits, struck out eight and didn't walk a batter. Crews had the only 3 hits for the Rams, finishing 3-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI.

"Thank goodness for (Moe) and Tony Crews," Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said. "Those two showed up today."

Moe has been "showing up" every time he's taken the ball this spring. He was throwing all five of his pitches - two-seam fastball, four-seam fastball, slider, curveball, changeup - over the plate.

"I thought his stuff was great last week," Whalen said of Moe's performance against Grayslake North, which managed just a bunt single in the seventh. "His stuff wasn't as sharp today, but he just battled. I find myself always turning around and telling our other pitchers, 'Watch this guy. He battles. He doesn't give in.' That's the sign of a warrior."

Take the Antioch sixth inning.

Thanks to a pair of errors, the Sequoits had the tying and go-ahead runs on second and third base with one out. But Moe got a called-third strike and then a swinging strikeout to end the threat.

Crews provided Moe an insurance run with an RBI double in the bottom of the inning.

"In the position I'm in on the mound, most of my teammates feed off my energy a little bit, and I wanted to keep myself composed," Moe said. "The bounces didn't go our way (in the top of the sixth), but I wanted to make sure I picked my teammates up and performed the way that I know I can."

Antioch starting pitcher Colin Weiska allowed 2 runs and 2 hits in 5 innings, striking out three and walking four.

"He had a good change of speed," Crews said. "He had a hard fastball, but the curveball was really good. We were struggling with that. He was a good pitcher."

Antioch threatened again in the seventh, as its leadoff hitter reached on an error. But Moe got three groundball outs to end it.

"Chris does a great job with those guys," Whalen said of Antioch coach Chris Malec. "They're well-taught, and they were fighting off pitches and fighting off pitches."