Grayslake Central makes history with third-place finish

No wonder Kevin O'Rourke wanted to make quick work of LaSalle-Peru Saturday morning.

The Grayslake Central senior pitcher says that he and his teammates had been waiting long enough for their fairytale ending. Eight years, to be exact.

"When I was in fifth grade, I started playing travel basketball and then baseball with some of these guys and I remember always saying that when we were seniors we were going to win state," O'Rourke said.

Well, the Rams didn't quite win state, but they did the next best thing.

Behind a rock-solid effort by O'Rourke on the mound, Grayslake Central ran away with a 9-1 victory over LaSalle-Peru in the Class 3A third-place game at the IHSA state baseball tournament, played at Silver Cross Field in Joliet.

"This is awesome," said Grayslake Central senior shortstop Kurt Schmidt, who went 2-for-4 with a triple. "Coming into the program three years ago, you never think anything like this could ever really happen and now that it has, it's just breathtaking. It's the time of your life and you're going to be able to remember this forever."

The Rams, who close out the season with a 27-15 record and a 14-2 mark over their final 16 games, will be remembered as the first boys team in school history to advance downstate and earn a trophy.

Grayslake Central fans can help them commemorate that historic achievement at a 3 p.m. public pep rally Sunday in the high school's field house.

"This has been a special group all year. They came out today with a lot of fire and determination," Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said. "We talked about (the significance of winning third place) after the (semifinal) game yesterday. Only four teams today were going to have the chance to finish their years with wins."

The Rams wanted to finish their season with a win in the Class 3A state championship game. But even though Joliet Catholic, the eventual state champion, dashed those hopes Friday with a 4-1 semifinal victory over Grayslake Central, a quick rebound was easy.

"We wanted a state championship really bad," O'Rourke said. "But for me personally, I wanted to go out on a high note, a win. I just shook it off, got a good night's sleep and just came out and pitched my game."

O'Rourke went 61/3 innings and had a no-hitter going into the fourth inning. He gave up a total of just 4 hits and finished with 4 strikeouts and only 1 walk.

"I'm proud of (O'Rourke)," Whalen said. "The last two Saturdays, he's been virtually un-hittable. He threw a shutout against Johnsburg in the sectional final (last week) and threw the ball just great today against a very good-hitting team. We made all the plays behind him. It was a good day for Grayslake Central."

But not just in the field.

The Rams hit the ball well, too, finishing with 8 hits.

Grayslake Central broke up a scoreless game in the second inning by taking advantage of two LaSalle-Peru errors. Designated hitter Chris Brown also came up big when he drilled a 2-run single into right field.

The Rams ended up scoring 4 runs on 3 hits in the inning.

"Our kids would tell you they were a lot more loose today (than against Joliet Catholic)," Whalen said. "And that's when we play our best. Yesterday, our swings were tight. Today, the kids came out with nothing to lose and that's the way we've played the last 30 days.

"Chris Brown had that big base hit to right and that was the big hit we were looking for yesterday. Two-run singles are backbreakers. Now it's 3-0 and we've got our big guy (O'Rourke) on the mound. If we get a lead like that, we're actually pretty tough to beat. We don't squander too many of them."

Grayslake Central scored two more runs in the third inning off a triple by Andrew Hosford and a single by Stefan Falbo, who went 2-for-3 on the day.

LaSalle-Peru couldn't stop the bleeding in the fourth inning either. The Rams scored 3 runs on 2 hits, highlighted by an RBI single to right field by Angelo Gargano. LaSalle-Peru also had two more costly errors in the inning.

"Grayslake Central did a good job of hitting the ball and throwing a lot of strikes," said LaSalle-Peru coach Bill Booker, whose team closes out the year with a 33-5 record. "We just didn't put our best product on the field. You look up at the scoreboard and see that we had 4 hits and 4 errors. That's not a good thing to have in a game of this magnitude.

"But by no means are we going to let that get us down. There are about 166 teams that would like to be in the spot we were this weekend."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=300438">Grayslake Central takes third place </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>