Banner day for Grayslake Central

The Incredible Hulk, or at least part of him, will be forever immortalized in Grayslake Central baseball lore.

He got to be in some of the team's celebratory regional championship photos on Saturday.

And yet, unlike the players who actually earned that moment in time with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Antioch in their own regional, he didn't even fully do his job.

The Rams have adopted an oversized, cushy bright green Incredible Hulk fist to keep around during games. It kind of looks like a boxing glove.

The fist fits right in with the team's colors and, on first glance, it seems as if its purpose might be to represent a mean green toughness of sorts.

But that's not why the players like it.

The fist is actually supposed to be a helpful distraction, a silly-looking object for the players to toss around in fun while they try to stay loose and stress-free during games.

"We do some quirky things, we're pretty out there as a team," laughed Grayslake Central right fielder Jackson White, referring to use of the Hulk fist. "The fist is supposed to represent fun. Just have fun out there and stay loose."

But, incredibly, even the Hulk couldn't rid the Rams of their jitters and nerves against Antioch.

Grayslake Central, which had been scoring runs by the boatload lately, struggled at the plate against the Sequoits. And ace pitcher Matt Murphy wasn't quite himself to start the game.

Still, the Rams managed to battle through their issues (and the Hulk's bad day at the office) to earn a spot in next week's Class 3A sectional semifinal against Montini at Johnsburg.

The regional championship is Grayslake Central's second in a row. Last year, the Rams eventually turned a regional championship into the program's first ever trip downstate.

Grayslake Central finished third in the state in Class 3A.

"I was surprised by (the nerves). We're a much better team when we're relaxed," said Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen, whose team improves to 29-7 on the season. "At one point I was like, 'Hey guys, just 'chill-ax.' It's a bad sign if I've got to tell them to relax because I'm the guy who is usually high-strung.

"I think the seniors knowing that this was going to be their very last game here on our field may have had something to do with it."

The high expectations the Rams have for themselves might have also factored into the equation. They've been telling themselves all season that the goal is to not only get back downstate but to actually finish on a win down there.

"Winning this regional lifts a little bit of that weight off our backs," said Murphy, who improves to 9-0 on the mound for the season. He went the distance against the Sequoits and rolled up 5 strikeouts against only 3 walks.

"There's a little bit of pressure on us. We've been saying that anything less than state would be a disappointment. So I think we were a little bit (tight) and now that has been lifted."

Antioch did a good job of supplying its own pressure on the Rams.

Grayslake Central scored the winning run in the fifth on an RBI single by White and Austin Miller drove in an insurance run in the sixth with a double. But before that, the normally high-scoring Rams were relatively quiet.

They got on the board first when Kevin DeRue drove in Joe Schaiper in the second inning. But the Sequoits then tied the game with a RBI single by sophomore Adam Warner in the fourth inning.

In the meantime, Antioch pitcher Ryan Dragoon kept the Rams off balance with his nasty curveball. They got only 2 hits over the middle three innings.

"I threw a lot of first-pitch curves," Dragoon said. "You've got to try to keep the hitters off balance. I kept changing pitches. Our coaches like to say that you need to be consistently inconsistent about that.

"But that's a great team. I just wish we could have gotten some more runs. Our first nine games, we started off like 2-7. But we started to grow chemistry and grow as a team and I'm just sorry it's over. It's been a good ride."

Antioch finishes its season with an 18-17 record, highlighted by a regional semifinal victory over sister school Lakes, once considered a favorite to win the regional.

"You saw what this team is capable of," Antioch coach Paul Petty said. "It took a lot of work and a lot of practice after a rough start, but this team finished on a very positive note."