Baseball: St. Charles East's Abruzzo shines in closer role
St. Charles East senior pitcher Steve Abruzzo is learning to embrace the chaos inherent to the closer's role.
"It's a little nerve-wracking, but this is what I do," the 6-foot, 195-pound right-hander said this week.
Abruzzo earned the save in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over Geneva by retiring the side in order in the seventh inning on 8 pitches. It was his third save of the season. He also closed games against Prospect and Plainfield South.
"I liked the idea of it," he said of being asked last summer by Saints coach Len Asquini to pitch at the back end of the bullpen. "I was real comfortable with it. Then once we started playing games I felt more and more comfortable with it. It's all about confidence. Basically, you come in in the biggest situation of a game. That's about it."
Abruzzo earned his first varsity win on Wednesday against Geneva. He entered a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the seventh and threw 2 scoreless innings in a 3-1 victory. Asquini awarded him the game ball afterward.
"In the summer we thought he could do that for us and it's shown right now," Asquini said. "He's had a real nice start to the season in that spot. Hopefully, it continues because he's been big. It's really encouraging to see him do that early in the year. By the end of the year he ought to be real tough for us."
Pennington open to baseball offers: Cary-Grove senior catcher/outfielder Tyler Pennington has reopened his college baseball recruitment, though the talented athlete said he is still hoping to play high-level football as a walk-on.
After Tuesday's 3-1 loss to McHenry, in which he drove in the only run, the 5-foot-11, 220-pound senior said he has narrowed his football opportunities to Illinois State or possibly Arkansas.
The contact with Arkansas came through Cary-Grove assistant football coach Matt Ruhland, who played at Iowa with Arkansas head coach Brett Bielema.
"We asked (Ruhland) to just send him our stuff just for fun honestly," Pennington said. "Things kind of picked up. I'm just waiting to hear back on numbers, but they said it's looking good."
Pennington is a three-time all state football player who in four seasons at fullback rushed for over 5,100 yards and 84 touchdowns, both school records.
Meanwhile, he continues to excel in baseball. An all-Fox Valley Conference and all-area pick each of the last two seasons, he plays for Elite Baseball Training's National Travel Team. That roster has included area stars like Naperville Central pitcher Ryan Eiermann (TCU), St. Charles North's Tyler Mettetal (South Carolina) and Zach Mettetal (Memphis), McHenry pitcher Bobby Miller (Louisville) and Jacobs center fielder Mike Addante (Nebraska).
As a junior Pennington led the Fox Valley Conference co-champs by hitting .398 (41-for-103) with team-highs in doubles (9), triples (4), home runs (4), RBI (30) and slugging percentage (. 680).
On April 7 he gave college baseball coaches more to chew on when he blasted a pair of 2-run home runs in a 10-0 win over Prairie Ridge.
"I've reopened baseball just to get some interest," Pennington said. "We'll see."
Maroons and Royals to conclude crosstown series: The final game of the weather-plagued Elgin-Larkin series will be played Monday at Larkin.
The Royals won the series opener 11-1 in six innings. In Game 2, Elgin scored twice in the top of the seventh to knot the score only to see Larkin score the game-winner in the bottom half when junior Kobe Mounivong sent a groundball to first base and junior Gunnar Boley scored ahead of the tag.
Larkin seeks a sweep of the 3-game Upstate Eight River series. Elgin swept the crosstown series last year, but Larkin won a regional playoff rematch 9-3.
Viking call to the pen: Geneva dropped the middle game of its Upstate Eight River series against St. Charles East 3-1 on Wednesday despite a strong performance from relief pitcher Matt Evert, a developing setup man.
Geneva (5-5, 2-2) led 1-0 in the top of the sixth inning, but the Saints put runners at first and second with no outs via an error and a walk.
On came Evert to relieve starting pitcher Noah Davison. He induced flyballs from No. 2 hitter John Carroll and No. 3 hitter Niko Klebosits before issuing a walk to Patrick Griffin to load the bases.
Evert then made a great stab of a comebacker off Steve Abruzzo's bat and threw to first to end the threat and keep the Vikings ahead for the moment.
"That was unbelievable," Geneva coach Brad Wendell said. "We put a kid in a tough spot like that and we ask him to do it on a regular basis for us, to come in and bridge between our starter and closer. He's done a really, really good job for us."