Grayslake Central's a hit against Dundee-Crown

Here's a quick recap of the Grayslake Central baseball team's hitting totals over the last three games: 15, 14, 14.

The gaudy numbers are enough to make Troy Whalen wonder if he's still coaching the same team he's coached for the last eight years.

Yep, still Grayslake Central.

Just maybe not the old Grayslake Central. Because the old Grayslake Central typically didn't engage in such prolonged offensive explosions.

On Saturday morning, after the Rams rolled up 15 hits en route to a 12-2, five-inning victory over Dundee-Crown, all Whalen could do was shake his head in wonder and amazement.

"To have 15 hits today, then we had 14 last night and 14 on Thursday, if you know anything about our program, that's like a month's worth of hits usually," Whalen said with a laugh. "That's not Ram baseball. We're usually like the Chicago White Sox. We'll grind it out.

"But maybe these are the new Rams."

And Whalen happily welcomes the change.

Grayslake Central, which improves to 9-1, made it look easy from the start, stringing together 7 hits and scoring 6 runs in the first inning alone. The hot hitting continued throughout each inning, to the point where five players got at least 2 hits on the day and three players wound up being perfect at the plate.

"The key for us this year is to stay loose," said Grayslake Central left fielder Mike Gentile, who went 3-for-3 on the day with a double. "I remember last year, everyone would be uptight, trying too hard. We play much better when we're loose. We just like to have fun with each other. We joke around and the hitting, when it gets going, is contagious."

Grayslake Central caught the bug immediately when leadoff man Andrew Hosford opened the first inning with a double. Dundee-Crown didn't retire the Rams until Hosford came up to bat again.

After the 6-run first inning, the Rams added another 3 runs in the second inning, thanks in large part to back-to-back RBI doubles from Angelo Gargano and Joe Schaiper.

At that point, Grayslake Central boasted a commanding 9-1 lead. The Chargers' only run came on a second-inning dinger by Nick Spagnola, who also happened to drive in his team's only other run, off of a double in the third.

"We didn't help ourselves, but Grayslake Central is also a very, very good hitting team," Dundee-Crown coach Jon Sawyer said. "Pitching-wise, I don't think we were real sharp. But you've still got to hit the ball and they definitely did that. They took the right approach in trying to go to right field and they executed it.

"We have to do a better job of staying in games. We're still a fairly young team and sometimes we can get a little discouraged and down, like when they jumped out to that big lead. That's tough to overcome."

But the Rams weren't satisfied with only an early lead. They kept adding to it, highlighted by some fireworks in the fourth.

Gentile opened the inning with a double, and then with the very next at-bat Angelo Gargano drilled a home run into right field.

Perhaps the happiest person in the Grayslake Central dugout was starting pitcher Mitch Tielke, who was able to relax on the mound knowing that the runs were piling up.

"Our hitters were so clutch, and I just tried to do my best," said Tielke, who is 1-1 on the mound this season and was awarded the game ball from Whalen after giving up just 2 walks on the day. "When we hit like this, as a pitcher, you feel pretty confident when you go out there that you can give up 2 runs and still win the game.

"Our motto is 'Hit 'em early, hit 'em often,' and we did."