Buffalo Grove's seniors save their best for last
Buffalo Grove's senior baseball players aren't accustomed to success.
They won 4 games as sophomores and were part of a 13-18 team as juniors. Now the Bison are a win away from matching last year's total and take a four-game winning streak and share the Mid-Suburban East lead with Hersey into today's home game with Conant.
"We've kind of been on a roller coaster and we're just going," said senior pitcher and cleanup man Jeremy Salzman of the 12-7 Bison.
"It's exciting," said second-year BG coach Jeff Grybash. "We said to work for the varsity and these guys have showed if you put in the hard work, good things are going to happen."
Salzman and classmates such as Greg Sanders, catcher Steve Pollakov, second baseman Brian Crowell and first baseman Mike Hepner have helped lead the way.
It's been vital since sophomores Jimmy Pinakidis and Jake Monson and juniors Tommy Ricciardi, Andrew Van Wazer and Ryan Nisbet were in the starting lineup in Wednesday's 1-0 win at Barrington.
"We have good senior leadership and guys who listen," Sanders said after throwing a 2-hit shutout. "We try and progress practice to practice and get better every day.
"Last year we were a little satisfied with not trying to get better but now we're getting better every single day."
Sanders delivered his best varsity pitching performance at Barrington for BG's first 1-0 victory since Jeff Pink beat Niles West in 2000.
"We started pretty shaky defensively but we've progressed light years from that and it's been awesome," Sanders said. "If you play 'D' and throw strikes you're going to win games."
Improved control has led to Salzman's 3-0 start with a chance to play in college. Perennial Division III power Carthage, where Grybash and his brother and BG assistant Dan played, has showed significant interest.
"I don't really care about individual stats at this time in my life," Salzman said. "I might play college baseball or I might not.
"Coming into this season I didn't think I would pursue baseball in college. But I'm playing great ball right now so why stop now when you're doing your best?"
Which also sums up BG's current fortunes after it started the season 5-0 but then fell to 8-7.
"Any adversity we've had, we've responded well," Jeff Grybash said. "We've talked about that since last year and the seniors have done a great job of being great leaders and very good role models."
Perfect addition for Lions: Pitching figured to be a strength for St. Viator with veterans Brendan King and Julian Sipiora. But junior Robert Romano has added to the depth as he improved to 5-0 with his relief win over Notre Dame on Wednesday.
Romano struck out the last four hitters in 12/3 innings as the Lions rallied from a 4-0 deficit to win 5-4 in eight innings.
"He's done a nice job for us," said Viator coach Mike Manno of Romano, whose fastball is around 82-84 mph. "We knew coming into this year he'd be a really good pitcher for us."
King and Sipiora got late starts after the basketball team's run to a 3A supersectional but have rounded into form. Sipiora got a bizarre loss when Benet got a game-ending, inside-the-park grand slam with two outs in the seventh and had a no-decision in Monday's 1-run loss at Notre Dame.
Manno was happy with the way King kept Viator close enough for its comeback win over Notre Dame.
"They're getting there," Manno said. "Julian has thrown some really nice games and pitched well enough for us to win (in the ESCC losses)."
Another good sign for Manno and has pitchers has been a tighter defense. The Lions hope it all pays dividends when they visit Joliet Catholic for a Saturday doubleheader and then face Carmel on Monday in Arlington Heights and Wednesday in Mundelein.
Hawks signs of success: MSL West co-leader Hoffman Estates hasn't been in first this late in a season since it was part of a three-way tie after seven games in 2001.
But Hoffman coach Todd Meador knows it's still a long haul for a program that won its last division title in the MSL South in 1990.
"We haven't won anything yet," Meador said after Monday's 11-4 comeback win at Rolling Meadows. "All we can do right now is take care of things one day at a time.
"We've told them this is a marathon and this was one leg of it."
The fourth leg - a 26-0 loss in five innings to West co-leader Fremd - was the largest overall and shutout margin in an MSL game since Barrington beat Elk Grove 27-0 in 1996. There was no 10-run rule after five innings in MSL games at that time.
Hoffman rebounded to beat Schaumburg 2-0 and Meadows.
"It doesn't count as two," Hoffman assistant coach John Hummel said of the Fremd loss.
"We chose to laugh it off," Meador said. "When you get your butt kicked that badly you have to.
"It shows a lot of growth on our part. These guys have swung the bats so well. They're loose and having fun and there's a lot of season left."
Hoffman showed its ability to stay loose and get a lot of contributions when it trailed Meadows 4-3 after five innings. A double by No. 8 hitter Trent Rehusch and a sacrifice by catcher Joe Gordon set up a 5-run inning.
"We don't have one person who does it all," said Hoffman third-year starter and all-area returnee Chris Fett. "Up and down the lineup we've come up clutch and everyone is pitching in."
Sacrifice bunts: Versatile Prospect senior Ed Gerdes has committed to Illinois Wesleyan as a catcher. Gerdes is also a middle infielder and is hitting .388 with 2 homers and 14 RBI - Red-hot Maine West and Glenbrook North meet in a big Central Suburban North home-and-home series Tuesday in Northbrook and Thursday in Des Plaines - It's now 32 years since the last MSL team to go through a league schedule unbeaten, when Barrington went 19-0 in 1978. Buffalo Grove just missed in 2002 when it won its first 15 but lost its finale to Elk Grove - Class 3A and 4A postseason seeds will be released by the IHSA next Thursday with regional pairings out Friday at ihsa.org.