Crystal Lake S. upends Cary-Grove
Faced with the prospect of falling 2½ games behind first-place Cary-Grove in the Valley Divison of the Fox Valley Conference, the Crystal Lake South baseball team instead pitched, hit and fielded its way to a 6-0 home win over the streaking Trojans Saturday.
CL South won behind the complete-game effort of pitcher Tyler Hall, clutch two-out, 2-run singles by juniors Jake Bigos and Max Meitzler (3 RBI) and a dynamite catch in left field by Bigos that kept the Trojans off the scoreboard.
“It’s a big win for conference,” Bigos said. “We can’t fall that far behind. These wins are important early on.”
The victory improved the Gators to 14-7, 6-2. It snapped a 9-game winning streak by Cary-Grove (13-7, 6-1), which won the opener of the 2-game series Friday, 4-2.
Hall (2-1) made the most of his third varsity start. The 5-foot-11, 150-pound junior limited Cary-Grove to 7 hits, struck out 7, walked 2 and hit a batter.
“He worked ahead, didn’t put anybody on and just pitched an outstanding game,” Cary-Grove coach Don Sutherland said. “He sure fooled all our hitters.”
Hall threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 30 batters he faced.
“Location is huge,” Hall said. “I don’t overpower anybody. It’s just locate them and make them hit what I throw. And when the defense behind me supports me, that’s it.”
His defensive support was most apparent in the fourth inning. Cary-Grove trailed 3-0 but was threatening with two outs and a runner in scoring position. No. 4 hitter Daniel Vilardo lined a ball sharply to deep left field, but Bigos ran it down and made an over-the-shoulder catch as he approached the warning track to end the inning.
“That was a fantastic catch,” Hall said. “It kept the shutout going.”
“I just got a little lucky, I think,” Bigos said. “Off the bat it was one of those at ‘em balls. I got a bad jump on it.”
The Gators scored 5 runs against Cary-Grove starter Matt Dunlap (2-2), who went 5 innings. Meitzler put CL South ahead 1-0 in the second by clubbing a 2-2 curveball for a leadoff home run to left. It was the junior’s fifth homer this season.
“I was just trying to drive the baseball,” Meitzler said. “I’m really not worried about hitting home runs. I’m just trying to put it into gaps.”
The Gators scored twice more with two away in the third when Bigos delivered a single to the outfield. They made it 5-0 in the fifth inning, courtesy of Meitzler. He hit another curveball for a 2-run, two-out double to center field.
No such clutch hits rescued the Trojans. They left 6 men on base, 4 in scoring position.
“You’ve got to go get the key hits by hitting early in the count, and our guys continued to take pitches,” Sutherland said. “I didn’t understand why and they couldn’t answer why. But when you’re looking at a lot of pitches with guys on base, your liable to get the curveball late in the count. They did and they couldn’t get it in play. Vilardo did but (Bigos) made a fantastic catch.”
Nick Byrne went 2-for-3 and Andrew Brierton doubled for Cary-Grove, which next plays at Hampshire on Tuesday. The Gators resume the chase Tuesday against Huntley.
“We’ve got a long way to go and the division is very tough,” CL South coach Brian Bogda said. “It’s going to be a battle like this everyday. But we’re right there. We’re right in the thick of it right behind (Cary-Grove). So we’ll be all set if we can just take care of our games.”