Ryan, Lakes see their way to sweep of VH

Normally, Tim Ryan wears contact lenses.

But about four months ago, the Lakes pitcher got poked in the eye during a pickup basketball game and wound up with an ulcer - on his eyeball.

Since then, Ryan hasn't been allowed to wear his contacts, and has had to wear glasses or sports goggles instead.

"This is something new. I've never had to wear (glasses to play sports) before," Ryan said Tuesday afternoon after taking the mound in his goggles against Vernon Hills. "I go (to the eye doctor) about every two weeks to find out when I can wear my contacts again."

In the meantime, Ryan wonders if he'll ever be able to fully see again.

"I'm probably going to have some amount of permanent vision damage," Ryan said.

And yet, one thing that seems to be crystal clear, even for Ryan, is how close the Lakes baseball team is to making history.

Ryan went the distance against Vernon Hills and guided the host Eagles to a 6-4 victory that put them in the driver's seat in the race for their very first North Suburban Conference Prairie Division crown.

The victory was Lakes' second over Vernon Hills, the two-time defending Prairie Division champion, in two days.

"This is the first time we've ever swept Vernon Hills and I think that says a lot," Lakes first-year coach Bill Rosencrans said. "We talked a lot about how if we want to be the best, we're going to have to beat the team that has been the best for the last two years. So this is pretty big.

"(The race) isn't over yet, but we can enjoy this for a bit. I mean, I don't think we've ever even finished in the top three (in the division). This is a great group of guys and I couldn't be more proud of them."

With its latest win over Vernon Hills, Lakes moves to 19-8 overall and 9-1 in the division, a full game ahead of Grant and two games ahead of Vernon Hills (15-12, 7-3 Prairie).

Each of those three teams has two division games left and Grant and Vernon Hills face each other twice next week. If, in the meantime, the Eagles take care of struggling Antioch twice, the Prairie Division crown will be theirs.

"We try to stay humble about things, but we're pretty excited," said Ryan, who rolled up 6 strikeouts and allowed just 2 walks in upping his record on the mound to 6-1. "This means a lot to us. We always play hard and with heart. I think we're going to make a great run this year. Hopefully, we're going places."

On Tuesday, the Eagles went right at Vernon Hills from the start.

They built up a 2-0 lead through the first two innings thanks to RBIs by Andrew Tubek and Dominic Costa (2-for-3 on the day).

When Vernon Hills put up a 3-run third inning to take a 3-2 lead, Lakes seemed undaunted. The Eagles put up a run in each of the next four innings to methodically take back the lead. For good.

The icing on the cake was a home run by Paul Kukulka in the sixth inning. It was his first home run of the season.

"This feels amazing. We're all excited right now, like wild animals," Kukulka said with a laugh. "We just worked as a team today and got hits in key situations."

Vernon Hills also got some key hits, particularly the four that came in the big third inning, courtesy Nick Mazza, PJ Marsek, Chris Argianas and Nate Moraton. The Cougars also rallied in the sixth behind another big hit by Marsek and an RBI single by Chris Marras.

But Ryan always found a way to curtail the Cougars' excitement and in the top of the seventh, after issuing a lead-off walk, he ended the game by retiring the next three batters on strikeouts.

"Tim has been the guy for us all year long," Rosencrans said. "He's been in all the big games and he just comes through."

Meanwhile, Vernon Hills isn't used to not coming through in the clutch. The Cougars have done so the last two years in winning the Prairie Division title.

"This is very disappointing," said Marsek, who was up with the varsity as a sophomore and got to experience the last two division titles. "You want to (win division) as a senior, too.

"But I don't think we played good baseball the last couple of days. Defensively, we weren't very solid, we threw the ball around a bit, made some mistakes. Lakes is a good team. They made the plays when they needed to and they got out of tough situations. The ball just fell their way."