Glenbard East responds against Wheaton North
Glenbard East pitcher Pat Walsh knew the home run he gave up to Wheaton North’s John Peltz leading off the second inning Wednesday didn’t matter as much as what came next.
And what came next were three strikeouts.
Walsh threw a complete game, defeating the Falcons 4-3 in Wheaton to win their DuPage Valley Conference series.
“I made a mistake and he took advantage of it,” Walsh said of Peltz’s first-pitch blast to left field. “Props to him. Short memory. Gotta get the next few batters. So that’s what I did.”
“It’s huge,” Rams coach Joel Pelland said. “And it shows what kind of competitor he is and where his mind is at. Giving up a home run, a lot of pitchers can fold under that, get frustrated. He comes back and pounds the strike zone the next one and strikes out the guy and gets us in the dugout. It swings the momentum back our way a little bit and allows us to have a little bit more confidence.”
The Wheaton North lead didn’t last long. Glenbard East (12-10, 4-5) scored twice in the top of the third, Joe Kotch coming in on an error and Walsh scoring on Chris Milligan’s double 345 feet to the wall in right-center.
“One of the things we talk about is when a team scores, you respond right away,” Walsh said. “That was just a great job by all the guys on the team to get on base and drive each other home. Kudos to our team.”
Rams second baseman Nick Vichio drove in first baseman Greg Ludwig in the fourth to make the score 3-1, but Falcons left fielder Lake Bachar scored an unearned run in the fifth to cut the lead to a run again. In the top of the seventh, Rams courtesy runner Mike Byrne, taking second after Milligan doubled again, scored an insurance run on Mike Hansen’s single to right-center. It turned out to be an important run.
Wheaton North catcher Ryan Jordan scored in the bottom of the seventh on a wild pitch, with River Williams moving to third base with two out. But Walsh got the last out with a spinning grounder to shortstop Danny Ryan.
“That ball had a lot of spin,” Pelland said. “It looks routine to everyone else, but that ball, when the ball spins like that it’s a tough ball to handle. He did good keeping his composure and sticking with it and getting the out and securing us the win.”
The Falcons (14-8, 7-2) will try to regain the momentum they earned after sweeping their first two DVC series.
“We just didn’t do enough offensively to beat a good team with their No. 1 on the mound,” Wheaton North coach Dan Schoessling said. “It’s going to happen sometimes. We made one too many mistakes, and you can’t do that against a good team.”
“That’s a good team,” Walsh said of the Falcons. “They were first in conference when we came in. Hopefully, that’s going to boost our confidence up. It just helps us more in the long run. When the playoffs come it’s a good win to help us with the seedings.”