Glenbard West won't balk at conference victory
For all the runs, hits, errors, walks, strikeouts and hit batters in Tuesday's baseball game between Glenbard West and Hinsdale Central, the deciding call proved to be anti-climactic.
A balk. Two balks, actually.
Glenbard West pulled out an 8-7 West Suburban Silver win over the host Red Devils, scoring the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning on back-to-back balks.
"I didn't think that it was going to come down to something like that," said Hilltoppers junior Tom Alt. "But stuff happens. He balked twice in a row, and we'll take that."
Trailing 7-6 in the sixth inning, Glenbard West (10-12, 5-7) tied it when three straight walks and a groundout by Alt pushed a run across. The Hilltoppers grabbed the lead in the seventh after Will Caspers doubled, moved to third on a balk and then went home on a second balk on the next pitch.
Dan Wawczak - Glenbard West's fifth pitcher of the day, making his second appearance this season - pitched 2 innings of scoreless relief to preserve the win. He stranded two inherited runners and then stranded two of his own in the seventh.
"I guess it doesn't surprise me that something like that decided it," said Hinsdale Central coach Tom Dorrance, who was ejected after arguing about the second balk. "We had some chances, we had guys on second and third in the bottom of the sixth and couldn't bring them in. It's just a matter of timely hitting, and when you don't have timely hitting it's tough to win a ballgame."
In addition to the 15 runs, the game featured four lead changes, 16 hits, 16 strikeouts, 11 walks, 2 hit batters, 10 errors and eight pitchers. Oh, and two dropped popups in the same gusty inning.
After all that the game still wasn't decided until something new came along - the balks.
"It definitely had a little bit of everything," said Hilltoppers coach Brian Wojtun. "It was just one of those series that was crazy."
Hinsdale Central (10-11, 6-6) took the first two games of the series and put itself in position to win the third by scoring 4 runs in the fifth inning to claim a 7-6 lead. Only two balls were hit out of the infield as the Red Devils took advantage of 3 errors.
Glenbard West burst to a 6-2 lead as Bob Targo's 2-run single sparked a 3-run third. Alt had an RBI single in the 2-run fourth inning.
Hinsdale Central took a 2-1 lead on Matt Sliter's 2-run double in the bottom of the first.
"We haven't been able to put all three phases together, but the kids are working hard," Wojtun said. "I give them a lot of credit, they just keep working hard."