The bare truth: Lakes is a regional champ
In throwing the one-and-done monkey off its back, the Lakes baseball team got a hand. A bare hand.
A ball that took a bad hop screamed towards Lakes first baseman Ryan Burnett on Saturday afternoon. He improvised and used his bare hand to field the ball and step on the bag.
It was not only the most impressive out of the day, it was also the final out in Lakes’ 3-2 regional championship victory over host Antioch. And it put to an end the Eagles’ string of three straight first-round postseason tournament exits.
Lakes will meet Grayslake Central in Class 3A sectional play Wednesday at Grayslake Central.
“It was just a groundball toward me and I just wanted to knock it down. It took a hop at the last second,” Burnett said. “It’s great. I know we haven’t had the best success in the past. It’s great to win the regional and we don’t plan on stopping.”
The Eagles’ past postseason difficulties have been particularly frustrating for senior starters Chris Hoffman, Nick Traska and Jake Brown, all of whom have been on varsity since their sophomore years.
“To win this is big and it’s big for (Hoffman, Traska, Brown),” Lakes coach Ray Gialo said. “The kids set that goal early in the year. They wanted to make a run here in the playoffs and not be one-and-done. I’m very proud.”
The Eagles (21-16) made their coach proud right from the start.
Antioch jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Matt DeJong doubled in Emery Paramski, who reached on a double. But Lakes came right back in the bottom half of the inning and scored all 3 of its runs.
Traska led off the bottom of the first with a single to right-center. Hoffman drew a walk to put runners at first and second and then a wild pitch advanced them both. A Mike Bartlett single drove in Traska and then Jake Brown drove in Hoffman with a ground out.
Eventually, Bartlett wound up scoring off an Antioch fielding error.
For the next five innings, it was a pitchers duel between Hoffman, the Eagles’ ace, and Antioch senior Dan Arden.
Arden finished with 10 strikeouts and just 3 walks while Hoffman kept Antioch in check until the top of the seventh inning.
The Sequoits got a leadoff single by Cameron Slate and eventually loaded the bases. Slate then scored a run off a sacrifice fly by Jerry LaSaint. But the Sequoits could get nothing more thanks to Burnett’s bare-handed play at first.
“(The last inning was) very tense,” Hoffman said. “I didn’t make it easy for myself, for sure. I walked a guy, got a bloop hit, but we got some pretty big plays in the field by Ryan (Burnett) and other guys.
“I wasn’t too tired. By the seventh inning, it was pretty much just adrenaline. This means a lot. It’s big to win the regional championship game, but this is not it.”
It is “it” for Antioch, which closes out the season with a 22-13 overall record. The Sequoits couldn’t get a win over their sister school this season, dropping all three of their games to Lakes.
“I think for us, (the difference) would be players left on base,” Antioch coach Paul Petty said. “We call it ‘BIP’ with the kids — ball in play. We had the ball in play a ton today. And if you get BIP going, everybody still in their minds is like, ‘All right. I can hit.’
“We got some guys on base. We stole some bases, made a few things happen and we didn’t capitalize.”