Wauconda, Gick nix Lakes
Hitting conditions being what they were — sick — Ryan Gick would have been a slick “pick to click.”
Never mind trying to hit with those not-so-sweet new bats with the tiny sweet spots.
On what Wauconda baseball coach Bill Sliker called a “bunt-and-run” day with the wind howling in, his catcher, Gick, threw out 3 Lakes players trying to steal — all on strikes to second base — as the host Bulldogs won a small-ball battle with the Eagles in the teams’ North Suburban Prairie Division opener.
Gick even added a pair of hits, including an RBI double to start the scoring, leading defending NSC Prairie champ Wauconda to a 6-2 win Tuesday.
“He had a great game,” winning pitcher Brandon Gibis said. “(The caught-stealings) were big plays for us. They helped me out a lot.”
“I was just focusing on getting my quick feet,” Gibis said, “and making the throws in line.”
Gick wasn’t the only Bulldog throwing accurately. Gibis went the distance, striking out seven, walking one and scattering 8 singles, as Wauconda improved to 4-1. The 2 runs he allowed in the fifth, with Wauconda leading 5-0, were unearned.
“I felt great,” Gibis said. “I was hitting my spots. My off-speed was keeping them off-balance, and I was just getting ahead of hitters.”
When he allowed base runners, his catcher picked him up. Gick threw out a runner after Lakes’ leadoff hitter singled.
Wauconda second baseman Tony Kaminsky helped his pitcher in the fourth. With two on and two out, the Eagles’ Danny Jackson hit a groundball that looked destined to bounce into right field and score a run. Instead, Kaminsky ranged far to his left, made a diving stab, bounced to his feet and threw out Jackson at first base.
In the Lakes fifth, Gick threw out his second and third runners of the game, with the second ending the inning.
“We’ve been struggling at the plate a lot,” said coach Ray Gialo, whose Eagles fell to 3-6. “Just trying to make something happen, trying to get our offense going a little bit. Their kid (Gibis) threw the ball pretty well, and I thought I made some bad decisions. If you could take them back, you would. I probably got a little too aggressive there (on the basepaths).”
Wauconda managed only 5 hits through 5 innings against Lakes starter Chris Hoffman (5 runs allowed, 3 earned), but the Bulldogs made the most out of them thanks in part to sacrifice bunts by Kyle Bock and Jack Botheroyd in a 4-run fourth. David Diol followed Bock’s bunt with a 2-run single. After Botheroyd’s bunt, a wild throw on Austin Swenson’s groundball plated 2 more runs.
Botheroyd’s sacrifice bunt in the sixth resulted in Kaminsky’s RBI single.
“That’s so big,” Sliker said. “The guy does a good job bunting, but the next guy has got to come through. You got to give both guys credit.”
Gibis yielded an RBI single to Drake Larriuz in the fifth, but struck out the side in the sixth. In the seventh, the junior right-hander allowed an infield single to John O’Connor and Hoffman’s second hit of the game. But Gibis retired the last two batters on groundballs to third base.
Gibis has won both of his starts this season.
“He was throwing good,” Gick said of his batterymate. “His fastball was accurate, and his curveball was breaking good enough so they couldn’t hit it.”
Gick had the hardest-hit ball of the day. His two-out screaming line drive to left resulted in Shawn Sundquist (leadoff single) scoring from second and Gick standing on second base. Gick was hit by a pitch in the fourth and led off the sixth with a single. His courtesy runner, Austin Piekarski, scored twice.
“Wauconda’s always solid,” Gialo said. “You know you’re in for a good game when you come here. They made all the plays today.”
“I thought it was a pretty well-played game,” Sliker said. “We had a couple of little bobbles. They had a couple of little bobbles. But other than that, the pitchers really did a pretty good job.”