Baseball: Prairie Ridge's late rally ends Grayslake Central's season
Grayslake Central had the kind of baseball season that won't soon be forgotten, even in a program accustomed to deep playoff runs.
It started with an unbeaten streak that lasted the first 15 games and continued with a Northern Lake County Conference title and a regional championship.
And it took them into a Class 3A sectional semifinal at Kerry Wood Cubs Field in Chicago on Thursday afternoon.
The Rams had a 4-0 lead through first four innings against Prairie Ridge. But the Wolves chipped away with runs in the fifth and sixth innings before producing a decisive 4-run rally in the seventh inning.
Fifth-seeded Prairie Ridge pulled out a 6-4 victory over the top-seeded Rams.
Prairie Ridge (21-13) next meets No. 3 seed Antioch (19-13) in the sectional final at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The Sequoits prevailed 7-3 against Carmel Catholic in the other sectional semifinal on Thursday night.
"We knew a lot about Prairie Ridge even though we don't play them now, but we spent a lot of years in the Fox Valley," Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said. "We knew that their kids were going to keep battling. I would've like to put up a few more runs when we had a chance. Give credit to them - a couple of pitches that Coby (Moe) made were right where we wanted them. They just put some good swings on them. That's what good teams do and that's what happens in the postseason."
Grayslake Central (28-7) held a 4-2 advantage entering that seventh inning. Moe pitched a great game after getting out of jams in the opening innings. He had a line drive that went off his ankle and still threw a runner out in the third.
Moe kept going and was still in the game with the 2-run lead in that final inning. He got the first hitter to fly out, but then the Wolves started meeting with success.
"He's a warrior out there," Whalen said. "He didn't have his best stuff. He got us out of it in the first couple of innings. PR made the adjustment at the plate, and we made adjustments. It really was a good chess match going back and forth. We got the first out in the last inning with two to go. Then they strung together some hits.
"We told ourselves going in that we were going to go with our horse on the mound. Hindsight being 20/20, maybe you take him out earlier - and maybe you don't. That will keep me up for a few nights. I still couldn't be more proud of my kids with the way that they played and battled."
The Wolves cut the lead to 4-3 in the seventh on Roth Mizell's RBI single. Then Moe was relieved by Clay Stoffel, who was greeted by Ben Harris connecting with a 2-run double to the right-center field fence, making the score 5-4.
"I saw a fastball to the outside and I was trying to hit it to right field," Harris said. "All I wanted to do was to hit it and move my runner over. There was a lot of pressure there. Our team just never gives up."
Prairie Ridge added another run as Harris moved to third on an infield single and scored on a suicide squeeze bunt for the 2-run advantage.
"Honestly, we've been swinging it well lately," Prairie Ridge coach Glen Pecoraro said. "I'm surprised that we weren't getting good swings on (Moe) early on. The second half of the season, it was only a matter of time before we swung it well. We proved that in the last part of the game."
Grayslake Central scored 3 runs in the third inning, 2 of which were unearned. Kevin O'Brien had an RBI single to right-center that brought home Joey Webster. Then, O'Brien scored on a Nic Presutti sacrifice bunt for the second run, and Antonio Crews followed up with an RBI single for the 3-0 lead.
The Rams' other run was in the fourth inning on Presutti's sacrifice fly which scored Webster from third base.
"It's been a great group of kids to be around," Whalen said. "They fought, fought, fought and fought. The ball didn't bounce our way a couple of times."