Grayslake Central sweeps Prairie Ridge
When rain washed out Friday’s game against Prairie Ridge, the Grayslake Central baseball team could have taken advantage of a rare free day.
The Rams could have caught up on their favorite TV shows, stocked up on some extra Zs or met up with friends for a movie — all of which can be impossible to do in the thick of the season.
But instead, a meeting was called. By the players, and for the players.
The Rams decided to spend their night off in a classroom at school, discussing business. The business of baseball, and the team.
Grayslake Central started the season with a nifty 3-0 record as part of its spring break trip to Florida. Once the Rams got home, it was a different story.
They lost three straight games.
Before embarking on Saturday’s home doubleheader with Prairie Ridge (the second game was a makeup from the night before), the Rams knew they needed to get some answers, to iron out any problems.
Hence the meeting that took the place of TV, extra Zs or movies.
“We talked about how we were all thinking too much and worrying too much,” Grayslake Central right fielder Jon Gurchak said. “We decided that we needed to start letting loose, playing looser. We figured out that’s the only way we could come together as a team is to let loose.”
The Rams let loose on Prairie Ridge all right.
Against a team that has been tabbed one of the best in the Fox Valley Conference, Grayslake Central rolled to a two-game sweep.
The Rams defeated Prairie Ridge 3-1 in the first game and 11-6 in the finale.
“For the short term, the meeting seems to have worked,” Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said. “I think it’s a sign that we have some nice senior leaders and some tough kids.
“A lot of today was about pride and getting 2 wins and we were able to do that against a very good team.”
In the first game, Grayslake Central, which is 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the FVC Fox Division, took advantage of some timely hitting and unflappable pitching by starter Austin Leggett, who went the distance and improved his record on the mound to 3-0.
Leggett gave up just 2 hits and 3 walks and got out of two dangerous jams relatively unscathed midway through the game.
“We didn’t execute on the bases or on our bunt offense,” said Prairie Ridge coach Glen Pecoraro, whose team is 2-7 on the season. “That’s how we lost the game.”
Prairie Ridge scored its lone run in the fourth inning when Alex Senyshyn came in from third on a Grayslake Central error. But the Wolves also left four runners on over the fourth and fifth innings.
“I felt really good out there,” Leggett said. “The first couple innings my curveball was kind of off. But later on, I started getting it in and that’s when I started striking out people.”
Leggett had 4 strikeouts on the game.
Grayslake Central struck out only once up until Prairie Ridge inserted reliever Tyler Tennant with two outs in the fourth. He finished with 3 strikeouts, but the Rams were still able to make plenty of contact in rolling up 9 total hits.
Leggett blasted 2 doubles while Gurchak, Austin Miller and Joey Bleuer each had 2 hits. Each had a double.
“We hit some balls hard,” Whalen said. “I thought Gurchak set the tone for us in both games,”
In the second game, Guchak scored 3 runs and stole 2 bases.
Nick Hosford had a double for the Rams and Austin Miller had 2 hits and 3 RBI.
The biggest story for the Rams in the finale was that pitcher Mark Ash went five innings to get the win.
Ash has been used sparingly so far this season as he negotiated recovery from a serious illness that struck just before tryouts started.
“Mark pretty much just got fully cleared,” Whalen said. “For us to get five whole innings from him at this point is big. And he threw the ball very well.”
Ash allowed no walks and just 2 hits in his first victory of the season.