NU-bound Ruchim christens Evanston park
As the Stevenson bus approached the new Wildkits Stadium in Evanston, the eyes of the players focused on the left-field fence.
"It's the first thing you see," junior Kyle Ruchim said.
When Ruchim came to bat in the top of the fourth Thursday, he proceeded to christen the wall, which is 300 feet from home plate and 30 feet high. In the third game at the new stadium, Ruchin became the first person to homer over the unique wall.
His towering 2-run home helped Stevenson turn back Evanston 7-4. Ruchim - who, coincidentally, just committed to play his college baseball in Evanston - also pitched the first six innings to earn the victory.
"I made him throw me a fastball and I was able to drive it," Ruchim said.
Did he think it was gone?
"I knew I got a good piece of it," he said.
Stevenson ran its record to 4-0. The Wildkits, who fell to 1-3, leave for Florida this weekend for their annual spring-break trip.
Ruchim did not receive a ton of support in the field. Three of the 4 runs he allowed were unearned. The Patriots (4) and Evanston (3) combined to make 7 errors.
"We didn't pick up the ball real well, but Kyle battled and hit his spots," Patriots coach Paul Mazzuca said. "Evanston has a good hitting lineup and he made the key pitches when he needed to."
Ruchim, a Northwestern recruit, did benefit from Evanston making two key outs on the bases.
"We felt we could win the running game," Evanston coach Frank Consiglio said. "We ran ourselves out of some innings and when you do that it's hard to get the momentum."
Ruchim struck out the side in the fourth and whiffed eight batters in all. He allowed 6 hits and walked two. Clemson-signee Scott Firth recoded the save in style by striking out the first three batters in Evanston's lineup.
Stevenson plated 2 runs in the second, third and fourth innings. Junior Patrick Wilson collected a triple and a pair of RBI singles. Wilson, a lefty, went the opposite way on his first run-scoring single.
"I waited for the ball to get deep in the zone," Wilson said.
Evanston's Sam Mendelson allowed 1 run in 31/3 innings of relief work.