Lakes-Antioch rivalry in no hurry to be settled
As Wednesday’s marathon baseball game between district rivals Lakes and Antioch headed into the 11th inning, Lakes coach Ray Gialo shared some bad news with the home plate umpire.
“I told him, ‘Just so you know, we went 14 innings with these guys last year,’” Gialo chuckled.
That’s a rivalry game for you. Both teams dig in their heels and go round after round because neither wants to be the first to let up.
Of course, darkness could have forced the issue, but Lakes senior Nick Traska did so first. He hit a single up the middle in that 11th inning that drove in a run and gave Lakes a 5-4 victory and a bit of revenge for last year’s 2-1 loss to Antioch in 14 innings.
“It was good timing,” Gialo said of Traska’s RBI-single. “When I was out there talking to the umpire, he said that we wouldn’t get (to 14 innings) because the 11th was going to be our last no matter what since we were running out of daylight. It was starting to get really dark.”
Gialo estimates the game didn’t end until shortly after 8 p.m.
“I didn’t even get back to my office (inside the school) until about 8:35 p.m.,” Gialo said. “It was very dark and really late. But we won our third game in a row, so we’re happy.”
Up and down:
Less than 24 hours before Lakes had to pull out everything but the kitchen sink to beat rival Antioch 5-4 in 11 innings Wednesday, victory came a bit easier.
On Tuesday, behind a strong performance on the mound by pitcher Chris Hoffman, the Eagles cruised to a 12-0 win over Antioch.
The stark difference in the two victories for Lakes is essentially a metaphor for the entire season. The Eagles have been riding a roller coaster of inconsistency from Day One.
Lakes started the season with a 3-1 record. Then the Eagles lost six consecutive games, and now they’re on a three-game winning streak.
“We were coming out excited for the big games and then we would come out flat the next day,” Lakes coach Ray Gialo said. “We weren’t doing a good job early on of playing at the right emotion level day in and day out. Our kids weren’t understanding that you have to be up for every game.
“We’ve worked a lot on that, on changing our approach so that our demeanor is the same for every game.”
Gialo figured he might have issues like these. After all, he’s got a young team. Only three players returned from last year with significant varsity experience.
To help put his team on the right path, Gialo has turned to those three veterans for help. Hoffman, Nick Traska and Jake Brown have all been on the varsity for three years.
“They’re really trying to show some leadership,” Gialo said of Hoffman, Traska and Brown. “It hasn’t been easy with so many of our guys not having much experience. We’ve had guys who haven’t gotten comfortable yet, or they’re unsure and you can see that on the field. Chris, Nick and Jake have really stepped up to help those guys understand how to approach playing every day at this level.”
Sick and tired:
There’s not much downtime for Grayslake North coach Andy Strahan during baseball season.
And yet, he’s found all kinds of time to put his feet up lately. He’s also been taking a bunch of naps, too.
Not that he’s been enjoying the reprieve, though.
Strahan was forced to downshift this week because he was hit with a monster flu that made him sicker than he’s been in years.
In fact, Strahan was so sick that he had to do something he’s never done before in his six years as head coach at North. He had to miss a baseball game.
Strahan was home when his team defeated Huntley on Tuesday. He also then stayed home from practice on Wednesday.
“It’s just really bad,” Strahan said of his condition on Wednesday. “I’ve had this fever and every time I start to feel better, the fever comes back.
“It’s weird. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this sick, so I’m trying to remember what I did (to feel better) when I was a teenager and got really sick like this.”
Strahan was hoping for any kind of remedy because he was itching to get back. But he also knew that he could afford to take the time to get well because his team was in good hands.
“I’m just ready to get back. I’ve never missed a game and now it feels like I’ve been away for so long,” Strahan said. “But I have a great staff and they’ve been able to handle practice. They handled a lineup change that we made (for the Huntley game). They handled practice. I haven’t done a thing and that’s been nice because I’ve been able to rest.”
Uh-oh moments:
Part of the reason Round Lake got an impressive North Suburban Prairie Division win over Lakes last week was that pitcher Anthony Burton had one of his better games on the mound.
The other part was that the Panthers avoided being hampered by their Achilles heel: errors.
Round Lake (4-10) has been averaging about 4 errors per game this season but had just 1 error against Lakes.
“Anytime we play good defense, we have a chance,” said Round Lake coach Ed Adamson, who estimates at least half of the runs scored against his team this season have been unearned because of errors. “That was a good win for us (against Lakes) because we really did a nice job of not making mistakes. We have decent players and we’re usually right there when we take care of the basic things like fielding grounders and making good throws.
“We keep stressing defense so that we can keep getting better and win some of the close games we’re losing because of the errors we make.”
Offense OK:
While Round Lake has been struggling to solve its error problem, the offense has been chugging right along.
Anthony Burton and Anthony Gutierrez are leading the team at the plate with a .417 and a .361 batting average respectively.
“Our errors have been frustrating, but there have been some really good things happening for us, too,” said Round Lake coach Ed Adamson, whose team recently swept a doubleheader against Northtown Academy. “We’ve got some guys who are really doing a nice job of putting the ball in play for us.”
Sophomore Ryan Newman is also providing an offensive spark for the Panthers. He’s hitting just above .300.