Love of the game drives Larkin’s Shore
Larkin senior Drew Shore loves baseball so much it was all he could think of in the moments after he tore the ACL in his left knee during a football game against Waubonsie Valley on Sept. 30.
Playing running back, Shore scored the first and only touchdown of his varsity career on a 2-yard run in the second quarter. Moments later his football season was over.
He refused to believe his high school baseball career was over, too.
“The first thing I said as soon as I tore my ACL was, ‘I’ve got to play baseball,’” Shore recalled Wednesday. “I was bawling my eyes out, saying I had to play baseball. I just had to. It’s my game. I’m a competitor. I can’t sit here and watch.”
As a junior in his second varsity baseball season last spring, Larkin’s shortstop hit .272 (22-for-81) with 3 doubles. He drew 17 walks, had an on-base percentage of .375, stole 8 bases and scored 15 runs.
Beyond the quantitative loss, losing Shore would have meant the loss of a well-liked co-captain.
“He’s a very selfless kid,” Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. “He doesn’t walk around cocky like some kids. He’s a kid you want your children to be like, and that’s the best compliment I can give a person.”
“He’s a sparkplug, one of those kids that just leads by example,” assistant coach Dan Koessl said. “That’s huge at this level.”
Saturday marks the six-month anniversary of Shore’s reconstructive surgery on Oct. 20, but he came back in earnest seven weeks ago, thanks to hours of work at Accelerated Rehabilitation Center in Elgin.
Though Shore concedes even now he’s only at “75-80 percent” of full strength in the knee, it was hard to tell the difference during tryouts in late February.
“I remember hitting groundballs to him in the gym and it looked like the same kid,” Esterino said. “He looked exactly the same. He’s still coming around running, but he’s one of our best ballplayers.”
The Larkin coaches have limited Shore’s playing time thus far to be on the safe side. He has played several games in the field at second base, but he has yet to hit or run the bases.
“They were worried about me going too fast around the bases,” the affable Shore said through his trademark grin. “ I might turn on my afterburners and hurt myself.”
Pete Lennard has been filling in at shortstop. The two will flip positions once Shore can demonstrate he can reach a ball in the hole and throw out the runner at first base.
“Hopefully, I’ll be back playing shortstop by the end of the year,” Shore said. “That’s my goal. But for now, I’m just glad to be back out here. I couldn’t miss my senior season.”