Baseball: Beerbower blanks Grayslake Central, clinches Lakes’ first NLCC title

As pitcher Brett Beerbower’s final strike of the game crossed home plate, Lakes’ dugout flooded the infield and mobbed Beerbower.

Coach Brett Hill couldn’t escape in the frenzy, either, as he soon found himself victim of a Gatorade bath.

The Eagles (22-7-1, 15-3) were celebrating a 3-0 win over Grayslake Central (24-8, 13-5) that secured their first Northern Lake County Conference championship, and the program’s first conference title since 2015.

“I told the kids yesterday that they had their first playoff game today,” Hill said. “The conference was on the line. They beat us? We share it.”

Lakes fell to the Rams twice earlier this week with the conference on the line, but in their final chance, the Eagles reigned supreme.

“We just had to flush it, not thinking of previous games because it’s one game at a time,” Beerbower said. “We knew we had to take one of these, so we just had to flush past games.”

Beerbower pitched the full seven innings for Lakes in the shutout victory, totaling seven strikeouts while allowing just five hits.

Pitching proved to be strong on both sides of the mound. Grayslake Central pitcher Derek Caldwell, who pitched all six innings, also had seven strikeouts while allowing just five hits.

“Both pitchers pitched extremely well,” Rams coach Troy Whalen said. “All of the runs that we gave up were unearned, and [Beerbower] shut us out. We didn’t hit with runners in scoring position. You can’t win if you don’t score a run.”

Lake took a 1-0 lead in the second when John Zutkis drove home Carson Norris from second base with a hit to the gap.

“It was huge,” Beerbower said. “It gave me such a cushion. I knew we were going to get that hit there.”

In the top of the third, Grayslake Central had the bases loaded with just one out. However, Beerbower escaped the inning by forcing two pop-ups that second baseman Jacob Kane caught.

To Hill, Beerbower’s composure was impressive, but not surprising.

“That’s Brett,” Hill said. “Nothing gets to him. That’s who he is all the time. That’s why he’s successful — because that’s his demeanor.”

In the bottom of the fourth, Caldwell stranded a runner on third.

Beerbower followed suit in the top of the fifth by getting out of another jam, stranding a runner at third when Zutkis made a diving catch in center field.

“I feel like I’m just confident every time,” Beerbower said. “I got to believe in myself that I can attack the zone really well [and] have the guys behind me be there for me. I trust myself and believe in myself.”

The contest remained at 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth, when the Eagles added two runs. With two outs, Hunter Bergdahl hit a double that scored Vinnie Jenks and Norris, who accounted for two of the Eagles’ three runs on the day.

“Hunter comes in and smashes that ball,” Hill said. “The kid almost caught it. We told him, ‘We got to help Brett out — chip away, chip away, chip away. Help him out.’ We finally got a couple extra.”

Beerbower pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the seventh to guarantee the conference title.

“It’s just a surreal feeling,” Beerbower said. “We worked so hard for this, and we always believed that we could do it. … I had to go into the inning not thinking, ‘I can do something great.’ I tried to think of it as another inning, one pitch at a time, one out a time.”