Baseball: Balanag comes up big, helps Warren snap 6-game skid

Warren desperately needed junior right-hander Peyton Balanag to knuckle down Tuesday in Gurnee.

The Blue Devils dragged a 6-game losing streak into their North Suburban Conference baseball matchup with Stevenson. Balanag ended the skid by mixing a knuckleball with his fastball and slider in a complete-game 3-hitter and 2-1 victory.

“I’ve thrown it my whole life — my dad taught me,” Balanag said after throwing 50 of his 76 pitches for strikes. “When it’s on, nobody throws a knuckler, and today it was alright. It had a little spin.”

Balanag danced past the minimum 13 hitters after Frank Costabile’s 2-out single in the third. Costabile, who threw 5 strong innings in Monday’s 6-2 win for the Patriots (12-15, 4-6), reached on the lone Warren (15-9, 6-4) error in the first and drew Balanag’s only walk with one out in the sixth.

Shortstop Colin Dreckmann and freshman second baseman Connor Nissen turned an inning-ending double play on cleanup man Matteo Nolasco.

“It was a great feeling to be able to command and set up the batters well for weak grounders and popups,” Balanag said.

“He did a heck of a job and never got flustered,” said Warren coach Clint Smothers. “He can throw the knuckleball whenever he wants and it’s great to be able to do that.”

Yuni Hamideh threw 5 solid innings for the Patriots as they scored first on Jackson Medralo’s RBI single in the second. This was their third game since Brad Sorkin took over as interim head coach for Nick Skala.

Skala was 119-57 the previous five seasons with a 2023 sectional title. Sorkin, a 2009 All-Area pitcher for the Patriots, politely declined to discuss why the change occurred but likes what he’s seen since moving up from the frosh-soph level.

“I’ve told some of the guys everybody is going to get an opportunity here and it’s a matter of them taking advantage of them,” Sorkin said. “One of the biggest things I’ve been preaching is all of us pulling from the same rope. At the end of the day we control our effort and preparation … and that’s something we want to focus on and hone in on.”

Warren tied it in the second when Jack Wolf (2-for-3) doubled, Dreckmann singled and Braxton Goodfellow hit a sacrifice fly. After a leadoff walk in the fifth by Nissen and a one-out intentional walk to Ethan Cole (2-for-3), Smothers put the runners in motion to take advantage of Hamideh’s high leg kick and Zach Ausburn grounded an RBI single up the middle.

That helped end a streak that included two 1-run losses to Mundelein and another to unbeaten Fremd.

“This is a great win for us to get our confidence back up,” Balanag said.

“We’re a young team and I’ve told them all along we can compete with anybody,” Smothers said, “if we play a good game without giving free outs.”