Rams rebound from rock bottom
Grayslake Central's Class of 2009 graduated way back on May 16.
The baseball team checked out about a good couple of weeks even before that.
It sure seemed like it, anyway.
A Rams squad boasting talent and experience that started the season so promisingly with a 5-0 start - which included some good team bonding on a spring break trip to Kentucky - was suddenly losing and unraveling at the seams like an old pair of baseball pants.
When the Rams weren't getting whipped by McHenry (10-0) or Huntley (6-1), or losing to - gasp! - their cross-town rival Grayslake North (8-5), they were dropping 1-run heartbreakers to Crystal Lake South (7-6), Crystal Lake Central (8-7) and Johnsburg (2-1).
Finally, a pair of Fox Valley Conference Fox Division losses to defending Class 4A state champ Prairie Ridge dropped the Rams to 14-13.
"I thought we hit rock bottom there in the middle of the season," staff ace Aaron Snyder said. "We were losing everything, we weren't playing very well and everyone was just getting mad at each other, bickering back and forth. We weren't playing up to our talent.
"We knew we had to come back."
Did they ever.
On Thursday, students came back to an empty Grayslake Central.
They along with faculty, administrators, parents, pom and cheer squad members - even school mascot Guido the Ram, the band and some Grayslake North ballplayers - gathered for a pep assembly in the old gym in support of the baseball team. As soon as the pep assembly ended, the players paraded outside and boarded a bus en route to Joliet, where at 1 p.m. today they take on 30-5 Joliet Catholic Academy in the Class 3A state semifinals at beautiful Silver Cross Field.
The Southern Illinois-bound Snyder, who's 10-2 with a 1.40 ERA, will start on the mound for the 25-15 Rams against a JCA club that finished third in the state last year.
Grayslake Central has never had a baseball team at state.
"Obviously Joliet Catholic's been there before, and it's in Joliet," said Rams coach Troy Whalen, shaking hands with well-wishers every 30 seconds or so, as his team bus idled in the parking lot. "I'm sure it'll take maybe an inning to get our legs underneath us, but our kids play with an awful lot of confidence when Snyder throws.
"He's been razor-sharp all year. There's no reason to think that he won't be (today). He's hungry for it, he's a big-game pitcher, and he's a big-time pitcher. He's not going to back down from anybody."
During the pep assembly, Whalen acknowledged to Ram Nation that at one point this season he didn't think his team would be where it is today.
"I think there were a lot of expectations, and we were kind of around .500 for a while," Whalen said. "But we play in such a tough conference. I think everybody kind of panicked a little bit, and some of the kids got down on themselves. But at the same time they didn't stop believing."
The high school baseball season is two months long - not counting the state tournament - but it can be a grind. Thanks to team leaders like Snyder, Angelo Gargano and Kevin O'Rourke, the Rams stuck together. They started winning again.
"When you're together that long, it's not a merry-go-round; it's a roller coaster," Whalen said. "I think some of the bumps we encountered made us better."
One of those bumps was a 5-3 defeat to Prairie Ridge in Crystal Lake on May 13.
"We still lost but we had a great game against them and almost pulled it out," Snyder said. "I think that's where our season started turning around."
When Snyder takes the hill today, the Rams will be seeking their 12th win in 14 games.
He can't wait.
"This will be the best game of my life," Snyder said of the excitement of pitching in the state semifinals. "Joliet's the best team in Illinois so it should be good competition for us."
The Rams were once at rock-bottom, as Snyder said. If they win two more games, they'll be on top of the world.
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jaguilar@dailyherald.com