Baseball: Grayslake Central digs in, tops Grayslake N.

Shoveling as a part of baseball practice.

Maybe it will be the next craze.

Or maybe it's just crazy.

Either way, that's what the players on the Grayslake Central baseball team did for part of their practice on Monday. They shoveled. The field. With snow shovels.

Yep. It's baseball in Illinois. In April.

The snow and ice over the weekend has wreaked havoc with outdoor high school sports. In order to have a chance at having a place to play Tuesday's game against Grayslake North, the Rams had to shovel and shovel and shovel ... their field.

"We had piles and piles of snow outside the dugout. We raked the snow in the field like leaves and put it into garbage cans," Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said with a laugh. "I mean, each year, we've probably had to do some shoveling. But in early March, not on April 16th. That's just ridiculous. I mean, who does that? It's just sad.

"But I guess it was good for team-building."

It was also good for an important Northern Lake County Conference win.

Grayslake Central used its freshly shoveled field to its advantage and put a 4-3 win over Grayslake North on ice, so to speak, by scoring 2 clutch runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to come from behind.

The Rams, who move to a sparkling 11-0 on the season and 4-0 in the NLCC, scored the game-tying run on a double by Clayton Bloemke and then Tony Crews drove in Bloemke with a single to left field for the winning run."

"It was a great team win," Grayslake Central winning pitcher Kevin O'Brien said. "We had a lot of different guys step up."

O'Brien was one of those guys en route to his first varsity win.

The junior righty came off the bench after the second inning and went the rest of the way, giving up just 1 unearned run over the final five innings. He recorded 3 strikeouts and just 2 walks.

"Before this, Kevin had pitched just one varsity inning," Whalen said. "This was his first meaningful varsity appearance and it was against the rival team across (town), and he did a very good job.

"Kevin has an electric arm and he's not afraid of the moment. He really competes out there."

O'Brien, who retired Grayslake North in order in the top of the seventh to thwart any ideas of a rally, says that he was happy with his control and location, and that the shoveling on Monday did not make his arm sore.

"The shoveling is like an ongoing tradition, just never this late (in the season)," O'Brien said. "I was fine with it. I thought my fast ball location was pretty good and I had my curve ball going too. I was able to keep the hitters guessing.

"I was a little nervous, but then I found my groove. With this first win, this is kind of a new beginning for me as a pitcher."

Speaking of beginnings, Max Snowden has been on fire at the plate since the beginning of the season. He had 3 of the Rams' 7 hits against Grayslake North, including 2 doubles.

Grayslake Central opened the game with 2 runs in the first inning, and both runs were scored off a Snowden double.

"He's hitting over .500 to start the year," Whalen said of Snowden, a right fielder who will be going to the University of Dubuque next year to play baseball. "He's off to a great start. He just works his tail off. He makes a difference on both ends for us."

Grayslake North, which drops to 5-7-1 on the season and 1-2 in the NLCC, got a solid pitching effort out of starter Edward Erickson, who went the distance.

Of Grayslake Central's 4 runs, only one was earned.

And over six innings, Erickson tallied just 69 pitches, less than 12 per inning.

"We always aim for 15 pitches in an inning. If you do that, we think you're pitching really well," Grayslake North coach Brett Hill said. "So less than 12 pitches per inning is really, really good.

"That's been Eddie's M.O. All season. He's just been super efficient. He had a game over spring break where he pitched 80 pitches over seven innings. He just does a good job of getting guys out and he pitches to contact. He gets guys to put the ball in play by staying in the strike zone and he forces guys to swing at his pitches."

Grayslake Central and Grayslake North will try to resume their rivalry today at North. But snow is in the forecast. Again.

"The weather this season has been crazy," Whalen said. "Global warming ... I don't think so."