Baseball: Late rally gives Grayslake Central sectional title over Crystal Lake South

Trailing No. 4 seed Crystal Lake South 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, time was running out for No. 2 host Grayslake Central in the Rams' Class 3A sectional baseball championship game Saturday afternoon.

But one way or another, Grayslake Central (28-7) found a way to get the job done in this pressure-packed game as the Rams forced a 2-2 deadlock after five innings before scoring again in the sixth en route to an exciting 3-2 victory over the Gators.

With the win, Grayslake Central advances to the North Central College supersectional title game in Naperville Monday at 4 p.m. against Montini.

Crystal Lake South closed out its season with a 24-11 record as the Gators went on a roll by going 16-3 in their last 19 games.

The Rams' comeback in the bottom of the fifth began quietly enough with a one-out single to center by No. 9 hitter Daniel Guckenberger.

Then Nick Presutti grounded out to first base for the second out as Guckenberger barely beat the throw to second and a potential inning-ending double play on a very close play.

A walk to Daniel Rogers put runners on first and second before junior Marcus Maristella came through with a huge RBI single to right field off CLS relief pitcher Beiker Fuentes to cut the lead to 2-1.

Then Coby Moe walked to load the bases before teammate Tony Crews hit a slow roller to the shortstop. But the ball was mishandled, and Rogers came home with the tying run.

"It came down to making plays. Grayslake Central is a terrific team and they made a few more than we did today," said CLS coach Brian Bogda, whose team had only given up one postseason run heading into the contest.

"But I'm really proud of them, we had a great group of seniors, and we were 8-8 at one point in the year."

A one-out walk to Nate Twardock started the Rams' winning rally before a wild pitch and a sacrifice bunt by Guckenberger put Twardock on third base with two outs. Twardock scored what proved to be the winning run on another wild pitch.

After reaching a major milestone with his 400th career win on Thursday, Grayslake Central coach Troy Whelen was even happier with win No. 401 Saturday.

"401 feels a lot better than 400, and 402 will feel better if we can do it on Monday," said Whalen, whose team had allowed no postseason runs heading into Saturday. "We told our guys to just keep fighting. Marcus (Maristella) had the big hit after (Guckenberger) got the inning started, and we thought coming into the game we would have to score five or six runs."

The Gators reached Rams starting pitcher Ethan Peterson for 2 runs on 3 hits in the top of the fourth as Jacob Bimbi's RBI double scored Nick DiBenedetto before Kyle Green's RBI single scored Bimbi.

CLS sophomore starter Dominic Guzman was solid, going 4⅔ innings while Rams reliever Eric Sturm went the final 3 innings allowing no runs on just 1 hit to earn the win.

"Sturm is the star of the game to me. We weren't able to put any pressure on them in the field after he came is so that was tough," added Bogda. "Troy (Whalen) does a nice job, I have a lot of respect for their program, and they were able to get that last run across."

Maristella was pumped up after he and his teammates were celebrating the thrilling victory after the game.

"There was no way I was going to let my team lose. I was just trying to do my job and help my team win as much as possible," said Maristella. "Monday is going to be a battle. We're going to fight, and we're going to make it out on top."

This will be the Rams' first supersectional appearance since placing third in the state in 2014.

"Eric (Sturm) threw a great game, they made him work, but he was able to throw three pitches for strikes so he was able to mess up their timing," said Whalen. "They're a tough team. They won 13 out of 14 coming in, but we've never lost a regional or sectional final on our own field.

"We knew it was going to be a battle. They won a state title two years ago in 4A, and we were fortunate enough to get a couple of key hits and they hit balls at us in the last inning."

Besides Bimbi, CLS got doubles from DiBenedetto, Kyle Hetherington, and Ben Peltz while Presutti doubled off the right field fence in the sixth.