Lake Park rallies past Glenbard North
Friday’s baseball game between Lake Park and Glenbard North became more mental than physical.
Not only did both sides have fight through sizable deficits, they also had to deal with miserable playing conditions in the cold, steady rain.
Lake Park’s perseverance shined most in a seventh-inning rally that led the Lancers to Friday’s 11-8 win over Glenbard North in Carol Stream.
“We just had to pull through today,” said Lancers center fielder Jake Pygmon. “You’ve just got to stay positive, you can’t think about the weather. You just have to pretend like it’s sunny out and stay positive.”
It must have seemed much brighter in the top of the seventh as the Lancers (1-2) rallied from an 8-5 hole heading into their final at-bats.
Five straight walks and a wild pitch started the inning, allowing Lake Park to score 2 runs without putting the ball in play. Max Boryszewski’s bloop single tied the game and then another wild pitch scored Nick Turner with the go-ahead run.
Run-scoring singles by Dean Kise and Brandon Boyle added to the 6-run outburst that put the Lancers ahead 11-8.
“That’s kind of been our story here for the first five games, we’ve just been really inconsistent,” said Panthers coach Rich Smelko. “Whether it’s offensively, defensively or throwing strikes, we’ve just been very inconsistent. Between yesterday against St. Charles East and today against Lake Park, it’s two games we should have had.”
Pygmon’s first-inning home run and a 4-run second inning, highlighted by John Schram’s 2-run double, spotted Lake Park to a 5-1 lead.
Glenbard North (3-2), however, rallied with the long ball. Mark Ng homered twice, including a 3-run shot in the fourth inning that put the Panthers ahead 6-5.
Jake Kline hit a solo homer and Ryan Gallagher’s 2-run blast in the fifth padded the Panthers’ lead to 8-5.
Lake Park answered with small ball in the seventh. Hard-throwing Schram, the Lancers’ third pitcher of the day, closed out the game in the bottom of the seventh by striking out three straight after issuing a leadoff walk.
“This was a tough day to play baseball,” said Lake Park coach Dan Colucci. “Just perseverance. We stuck with it and we took advantage of our opportunities at the end.”