Hosford’s hustle helps out Grayslake Central

Finally, a teammate tossed sure-handed Grayslake Central center fielder Nick Hosford a bottle of Gatorade.

He caught it, naturally, can-of-corn style.

From starting Saturday morning’s rematch with host Grayslake North by having Kyle LaRocca’s first pitch of the game skim his jersey, to scoring from second base on an infield error, to racing to second when Ball 4 skipped to the backstop and couldn’t be found by the catcher, the Rams’ leadoff hitter had himself an excessively busy baseball game.

Grayslake Central’s hustling Hosford was on base five times in 5 at-bats, scored 4 runs, walked twice, legged out a groundball for a single and stole two bases.

His small ball helped the Rams win big, 12-7, even though the rivalry game was closer than the final scored indicated.

“I’m a little tired,” Hosford said. “It was a tough game.”

Tough morning.

Unhappy with his team’s 9-5 loss on its home field to the Knights Friday, Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen called a 7:30 a.m. practice Saturday — 2½ hours before first pitch across town.

“We had a not-too-great game (Friday) so he wanted to get us focused to play today,” Hosford said. “It was a little early, but it was necessary. We definitely were unfocused (Friday).”

Kristian Meehan’s single — the first of his 2 RBI — scored Hosford and put the Rams up 1-0 in the first. The Knights pulled even in the third when Adam Gomski shot a single into right field to score Nick Carmody, who had a hustling double with one out.

But Grayslake Central reclaimed the lead on sophomore call-up Kyle Clark’s RBI single in the fourth, and the Rams were up for good. Two more runs scored in the inning against the tough-luck LaRocca (3 innings, 2 earned runs) after Jay Kleinofen’s groundball got thrown around.

Kleinofen got hurt when there was contact at first base. Amid the chaos, a heads-up Hosford kept running the bases and scored.

“Good things happen when Nick gets on base,” Whalen said. “He’s our catalyst. We know we’re going to score some runs when Nick’s getting on base.”

Hosford is planning on attending Indiana University as a student only, but the self-called “small, fast kid” will consider playing collegiate baseball at another school if the opportunity presents itself. Whalen calls his senior leader “an athlete.”

“I don’t really see myself not playing baseball,” said Hosford, who’s 5 feet 11 and thin. “It’s been my life for so long.”

Grayslake Central, which has already won the Fox Valley Fox Division championship, finishes up conference play Monday at Crystal Lake South. The Rams kept adding to their lead in improving to 23-7 and 16-2. They got outhit 11-10 but drew 8 walks from four Grayslake North pitchers. Sean Boban’s booming 2-run double was Grayslake Central’s only extra-base hit.

“I told the kids that for two games, I really thought North outplayed us,” Whalen. “We’re fortunate to come out of here with a ‘W.’ We are not clicking. We’ve lost that edge a little bit, and we’ve got a week to find it before the postseason. To the kids’ credit, we made the pitches when we had to, and we made a couple of plays when we had to. Somehow, we put up 12 runs.”

Grayslake North (14-15, 8-9) continued its roller-coaster season, despite battling all game.

“There’s like four different teams within this team,” Knights coach Andy Strahan said. “We’re a little Jekyll and Hyde on defense, a little Jekyll and Hyde on offense. We’ve been able to pitch it for most of the season.”

Grayslake Central cleanup hitter Jon Gurchak went 4-for-5 with a bunt single, an RBI and 3 stolen bases. His day included a delayed steal of third base when a pitch in the dirt was speared by the catcher but didn’t get away.

“You can’t teach a kid that,” Whalen said. “Jon’s been playing the game a long time. That was very instinctive on his part.”

Mark Ash pitched 5 innings, allowing 2 earned runs in notching the win. Down 8-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Grayslake North finally chased Grayslake Central’s Winona State-bound starting pitcher. Little lefty Mike Wiggins walked cleanup-hitting Carl Russell with the bases loaded to make it an 8-6 game but struck out the next hitter to end the rally.

Wiggins also pitched the seventh in earning the save. Ash surrendered 10 hits.

“I didn’t think Mark pitched bad,” Whalen said. “I thought he made some nice pitches that they put in play. He grinded. He gave us what he could on four days’ rest.

“Wiggins always makes it interesting,” added Whalen, smiling. “Striking out their guy in the bottom of the sixth, that was the game.”

Carmody, Grayslake North’s leadoff hitter, went 3-for-5 with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI. Sam Stanfel was 3-for-4 and scored twice. Knights sophomore left fielder JP Zalewski, who got called up the varsity a couple of weeks ago, hit the ball hard three times, finishing 2-for-3 with a double, walk and 3 runs scored.

“He’s got good hands and he does a pretty good job in the outfield,” Strahan said. “He’s got some speed.”

Zalewski has made a good impression not only with his skills.

“He had been scuffling this week,” Strahan said. “He just had been pulling off. He made some adjustments in BP, and he translated that right to the game right away. That’s impressive for any high school kid, especially a sophomore.”