Grant’s last at-bat a winner over South Elgin
Grant and South Elgin combined for 33 hits in Saturday’s Class 4A McHenry sectional title game, and Grant junior Tyler Gorski delivered the biggest of all to lift his team to a 12-11 victory.
Gorski was already 2-for-4 with a run batted in when he stepped to the plate with his Bulldogs trailing 11-10 in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and two away.
He fell behind in the count 1-2 against Storm reliever David Palmer, who then delivered a curveball at the knees that was called a ball to the groans of the South Elgin faithful. Gorski then fouled off 2 pitches to stay alive in the at-bat.
Finally came a pitch he liked. The third baseman ripped a walk-off single to the gap in left center, scoring Jake Ring and Brent Spohr to cap a 3-run, seventh-inning comeback and secure the first sectional title in Grant baseball history.
“I can’t even explain how I was feeling,” Gorski said of the at-bat. “My heart was dropping. I was like, ‘I can’t mess up for the team. I can’t let this be the seniors’ last game.’ I kept my focus, made sure I got my foot down and put it in play. I did exactly what I wanted.”
The Bulldogs charged from their dugout and piled atop Gorski near second base in celebration of their second comeback of the day. They trailed South Elgin 9-4 only to tie the game with a 5-run fourth inning.
“I just think these kids just don’t give up,” said Grant third-year coach Dave Behm, whose team set a new school record for single-season wins with the victory. “They’ve done that all year. I think we’ve learned from lessons in the middle of the season and it’s paying off at the right time.”
Grant (24-11) advances to the Rockford supersectional against Schaumburg (25-13) at RiverHawks Stadium on Monday at 7 p.m. Schaumburg defeated Willowbrook 11-1 in six innings to win the Schaumburg sectional. It will mark the first Elite Eight appearance for the Bulldogs.
“Nobody really had confidence in the baseball team at our school,” said junior Jake Ring, who went 3-for-3 with 2 walks, 2 RBI and 3 runs scored. “Now it’s the biggest thing out there.”
South Elgin (21-13) put itself in a good position early. The Storm scored 3 runs in the first inning against Grant starting pitcher Jake Trumpis, chased him with 3 in the second and scored 3 more in the fourth against reliever Zach Niedrich.
However, they could never pull away from the Bulldogs, who responded with 2 runs in the first inning, single runs in the second and third and a 5-run fourth.
“We’d add 3, they’d get 2, we’d add 3, they’d get another one,” South Elgin right fielder Andrew Weedman said. “It was just never ending. We couldn’t get an out.”
Six hitters on each team enjoyed multihit games, and 11 of the game’s 33 hits went for extra bases. Until Gorski stepped to the plate, the game’s 2 biggest hits had been home runs.
In the fourth inning, Grant had already chased South Elgin starting pitcher Eric Stazy and had pulled within 9-7 when catcher Simeon Lucas stepped to the plate with a man on base.
The left-handed hitter got the hit sign from Behm with a 3-0 count and ripped a fastball from left-hander Chris Bingham into the netting above the right-field wall for a 2-run home run, knotting the score 9-9.
“He was trying to pitch me outside, and on 3-0 pitchers rarely come with anything off-speed,” Lucas said. “So I figured it would be a regular fastball and it happened to be inside. I just turned on it and hit it as hard as I could.”
South Elgin jumped back on top in the sixth when Weedman hammered a 3-2 pitch from Lucas over the 360-feet sign in left-center field. The 2-run shot scored Ryan Ford, who walked, and staked the Storm to an 11-9 lead. That’s how it would remain until the bottom of the seventh as Palmer (6-3) and Lucas (2-2) matched each other with scoreless sixth innings.
The Bulldogs opened the game-winning rally with a double from Ryan Noda and a walk by Ring. Jordan Villareal smashed a ball to deep left field that would have scored 2 runs, but Storm left fielder David Goins made a tremendous catch diving toward the left-field corner to hold Grant at bay momentarily.
Spohr followed with a two-out single to left, scoring Noda to make it a 1-run game. South Elgin cut off the throw to the plate and attempted to catch Ring rounding too far past second base, but the throw was off-target and allowed both runners to move into scoring position.
The Storm subsequently walked Lucas intentionally to get to Gorski, whom they felt got a break from the umpire when the 1-2 curve from Palmer was called a ball.
“We thought we ended that game on a called third, and they called it a ball,” South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. “That’s the way it goes. It’s a game of inches. (Gorski) laced one in the gap. He didn’t hit a little chincer to score both of them. They did a good job. We battled back and forth.
The loss ended the deepest playoff run yet for the sixth year program.
“I’m proud of the team,” Kating said. “To go from how we started, to how we hit that rough stretch and how they’ve responded the last two, three weeks, I couldn’t ask for anything more from a group. Different kids stepped up both offensively and defensively and pitching and making plays. Practices picked up, the enthusiasm picked up. I can’t ask anything more from the kids or the coaching staff. I’m very proud.”