This time, things fall into place for Lakes
Same predicament, different result.
The Lakes baseball team has gotten into the habit this season of falling behind early and then rallying late.
Some of those rallies have worked out better than others. Wednesday’s rally was one of them. Tuesday’s was not.
The Eagles had just enough time and room to spare on Wednesday in getting a 6-5 North Suburban Conference Prairie Division come-from-behind victory against Grant, the same Grant team that spoiled its attempt at a similar comeback 24 hours earlier.
“This is a good character win for us,” Lakes coach Ray Gialo said. “After what happened to us yesterday, our guys could have definitely mailed it in today.”
On Tuesday, Lakes (16-13, 6-4 NSC Prairie) saw Grant take a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning. And that held until the bottom of the seventh inning. The Eagles then strung together a few hits and finally scored. But their rally was limited to just 1 run over their final three outs and they were ultimately tagged with a 3-1 loss.
Wednesday’s game seemed headed in the same direction. Grant took a 4-0 lead in the second inning.
Once again, Lakes rallied, but this time with enough gusto to get over the hump.
“We’ve (made comebacks) quite a few times,” Lakes designated hitter Mike Bartlett said. “Our team energy always stays up and that benefits us as we try to get back into games.
The Eagles scored 3 runs in the fifth and 3 runs in the sixth to overtake Grant.
“It was a great team effort,” Lakes second baseman Nick Traska said. “We got hits when we needed them.”
Catcher Danny Jackson opened the fifth inning with a single for Lakes and then he and Chris Hoffman were brought in by a big double by Bartlett. Bartlett also had an RBI in the sixth inning.
“I was looking at hitting tendencies and I noticed that (Grant pitcher Simeon Lucas) was throwing a lot of fastballs and not a lot of off-speed, so I was just trying to sit on a fastball,” Bartlett said. “When I hit the double, I got the pitch that I wanted and I drove it. You’re just trying to put the ball in play and get the guys in.”
A Traska double in the sixth drove in what amounted to the winning run as Grant squeezed out a fifth run in the bottom half of the inning.
“It’s frustrating that this (giving up leads) has been a repetitive thing for us this season,” said Lucas, who is getting starts as a sophomore for Grant. “We can’t blame anyone else for this. We lost focus and we couldn’t pick ourselves up after that.”
Like Grant (15-10, 5-5) was in general, Lucas had been cruising through the first four innings. He held Lakes to just 1 hit over that period.
But the fifth inning was a different story as the Eagles strung together 3 hits to score those first 3 runs. Lucas left the game after that inning.
Meanwhile, Lakes pitcher Chris DeRue entered in relief for starter Justin Demand during a rough second inning and wound up finishing the game. He allowed just 3 hits the rest of the way to get the win.
“To come in here and pitch well, especially when we didn’t get off to a good start, was great for Chris. He was tough,” Gialo said. “This is always a big game for us. It’s a big rivalry and important for us in the division.”