Grayslake Central bench delivers in sweep of Hampshire

Desperate times call for …

A desperate measure that Grayslake Central baseball coach Troy Whalen resorted to Saturday morning was to abruptly remove his entire starting infield midway through the first game of a doubleheader against visiting Hampshire and sub in reserves at first, second and third base as well as shortstop.

Whalen also took out his starting pitcher.

The Rams had allowed 6 runs in the top of the third inning by committing 3 errors and walking 4 batters. Something needed to change.

The reserves, who included Brett Muhr at first base, Jay Kleinofen at second base, Justin Allen at third base, AJ Hord at shortstop and Mike Wiggins on the mound, entered in the fourth and immediately made the most out of their unexpected opportunity.

Down 6-0, they shut down Hampshire with three straight outs in the top of the fourth. Then, they contributed to an improbable rally in the bottom of the fourth that included 8 runs off of 4 hits.

Playing with the lead, the confident reserves then played out the rest of the game, closing out a 10-6 victory for Grayslake Central.

The Rams (14-5) then won the second game of the Fox Valley Coneference Fox Division doubleheader against Hampshire 4-0.

“Coach always tells us that if you’re not ready, someone else will be,” said Hord, who had a single (his first-ever varsity hit) and scored a run in the Rams’ big fourth inning. “We (the reserves) are always ready to go in there and make a play and that’s what we did.

“I feel like we’re one of those teams that don’t give up and we have people who can step up. We’ve got a lot of talent, even on the bench. Everyone can come in and make a play.”

Some of Grayslake Central’s veterans also made plays.

Whalen kept his entire starting outfield in the lineup and seniors Sean Boban and Jon Gurchak didn’t let him down.

They each smacked a double in the fourth inning and drove in 2 runs apiece. Gurchak’s 2-run double put Grayslake Central ahead for good (8-6), going into the fifth inning.

“It’s tough when the starting lineup starts getting pulled,” said Boban, the Rams’ right fielder. “You start wondering what Coach is doing. But we’ve got younger kids who can produce, so it worked well for us today.

“The younger kids are hungry to play. Once they get out there, they’re ready to play and they’re ready to prove themselves and that’s a good thing to have. If you have kids who are off and you can put kids in who can produce, that’s huge.”

Grayslake Central added a couple of insurance runs in the sixth inning, one of which came in off a double by catcher Kristian Meehan. He scored Kleinofen, who opened the inning with a walk.

Kleinofen scored a total of 2 runs after subbing into the game in the fourth inning.

“We were just very lethargic at the start and I didn’t like our approach at the plate or our sense of urgency in the infield so we just did a wholesale change in the infield and I can’t say enough about the kids who came in,” Whalen said. “A kid like AJ Hord … he’s here every day and he just competes. He’s the perfect example of a kid who when his number is called, he’s ready.”

Hampshire (7-10-1) seemed ready to roll to victory early.

The Whip-Purs took full advantage of some walks and Grayslake Central’s errors to score their 6 third-inning runs off of just 1 hit.

But when starting pitcher Luke Wians was forced to leave the game in the fourth inning because of arm pain, Hampshire’s momentum was suddenly cut off at the knees.

“It’s a tough day of baseball,” said Hampshire assistant coach Steve Knapp, stepping in for head coach John Sarna, who stayed at home because he was struck with food poisoning the night before. “When you’re up 6-0, you think you’re going to win the game. But when Luke started having arm issues, that ended up hurting us big time. When he left, that’s when (Grayslake Central) scored their runs.

“I think we would have had a very good chance to win the game if he had stayed in. But he felt something in his elbow and asked to come out. It was too bad because he was pitching very well.”

Wians is confident he’ll be pitching well again soon. He doesn’t believe his arm issue is serious.

“It was tough getting loose that inning because we had just had a long at-bat,” Wians said. “I got out there and it wasn’t feeling right so I just pulled myself out.

“I don’t think it’s anything too serious. I should recover fine. It was just hard (to watch the rest of the game). But we’re a team and we’re going to stick together and come back.”