Suffern's best isn't good enough for Raiders
Glenbard South's David Suffern pitched an amazing baseball game.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, Johnsburg's Jerad Grundy was just a little better.
Grundy, a University of Miami recruit, took a no-hitter into the seventh inning as the Skyhawks edged Glenbard South 2-0 in Wednesday's Class 3A Lakes sectional semifinals.
Grundy, a hard-throwing senior lefty who's expected to be picked relatively high in next week's Major League Baseball draft, has won consecutive playoff games for Johnsburg (10-26) with back-to-back 1-hitters. For a team that's struggled for the bulk of the season, the Skyhawks are thriving on the back of their best player.
Grundy (4-6) struck out 13, walked two and allowed just a single to Suffern in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Raiders (20-17) put runners on first and second with one out, but Grundy struck out the next two batters to cap the dominant win.
"I really think my off-speed was on today, it really complemented my fastball," said Grundy, who has 117 strikeouts in 75 innings and tops out in the low 90s with his fastball. "I threw only two pitches today with my fastball and my curveball and it really helped me out. We're on a roll now. We have a lot of confidence as a team, which is going to help us out down the stretch."
Suffern (5-5) was the epitome of a hard-luck losing pitcher. The senior right-hander, who struck out 10 and walked four in a 4-hitter, took his own no-hitter into the sixth inning and even then didn't allow either of the Skyhawks' 2 hits out of the infield.
Trevor Cherwin had an infield hit and pinch-runner C.J. Hernandez went to second on a groundout. After another infield single moved Hernandez to third, he scored on a wild pitch.
Johnsburg added an insurance run in the seventh on Nick Kiessel's RBI single to center - the only hit out of the infield for the Skyhawks. In fact they hit only four balls to the outfield the entire game.
"I just knew I had to go out there and compete," Suffern said. "I wanted to give our team the best chance to beat a good pitcher. (Grundy) was pretty tough. He's got good movement, nice zip on his ball. I knew I had to give my best effort."
Glenbard South couldn't match last year's sectional championship, but facing Grundy had everything to do with it. The Raiders couldn't pull a single ball with any authority against a drastic defensive shift.
Against right-handed batters Johnsburg's middle infielders and outfielders moved way over to their left. They shifted the opposite way against left-handers.
"He came back on three days rest and pitched his heart out," said Glenbard South coach Mike Riley. "If we could have pulled the ball against him a couple times, it might have been a different game. We needed to play perfect, and we weren't able to do it."
A two-base outfield error in the fourth put the Raiders' Mike Meath in scoring position with one out, but Grundy again notched a pair of strikeouts to escape the jam.
"We play with a lot of confidence when Jerad's on the mound," said Johnsburg coach Dann Giesey. "The record hasn't been there, but he's been pitching real well."