Baseball: McCarthy pitches, hits Warren to sixth straight win
Warren stretched its winning streak to six games with a 7-2 road victory over Stevenson as Braylan McCarthy struck out 10 in a complete game effort while driving a pair on Tuesday in Lincolnshire.
“Honestly, everything was just working for me today,” said McCarthy, a 6-foot-2 right-hander who is committed to pitch at Milwaukee Area Technical College next spring. “Slider was moving a lot, curveball was getting them every time.”
The senior hurler fired 106 pitches from his low angle delivery, 71 of them for strikes. He commanded the strike zone consistently throughout the game for the Blue Devils (15-6, 8-2).
“Location wise, I was dotting up, making sure I pitched where I needed to,” he added, after limiting Stevenson to four hits, two walks, and one earned run over seven innings of work.
The Patriots (14-12, 4-6) were able to get a couple runs early, as they struck for one in the first and one in the second.
Frank Costabile had the game’s first hit off McCarthy on an infield single in the first inning before stealing both second and third base. He scored on an error.
“We just try to preach being aggressive and giving our guys the freedom to take it,” said Stevenson coach Christopher D'Amato. “That's what Frank was able to do to get into the scoring position and it helped us get on the board.”
Costabile also pitched the first three innings for the Patriots, striking out six.
Jayden Kimbrough lined a Stevenson single to right in the second inning and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0 Patriots.
The Blue Devils responded in the third, as the bases were walked full and McCarthy stepped to the plate.
He took a patient approach, watching a first pitch strike before tying the game with a single that left runners on the corners.
“I was just on time, and I drove it to right field,” said McCarthy.
Following another walk to reload the bases, Blue Devils senior Colin Dreckmann delivered the game’s big blow as he brought everyone home with a three-run triple to right.
“I wanted to be aggressive going into it,” said the Warren shortstop. “I just wanted to jump on it right away.”
Dreckmann later scored on a fielder's choice to make it 6-2 and Stevenson could not recover with McCarthy cruising on the mound.
“He's a competitor,” said Blue Devils coach Clint Smothers. “We don't have to worry about walks. We don't have to worry about passed balls, or this or that, or him falling apart. He's ready to go, and when he's out there, I feel like we have a chance to beat, or play with, anybody.”
Sophomore Connor Nissen added the final run in the fourth inning after reaching on a fielder’s choice and later scoring on an error.
With the win, Warren has now claimed wins in 11 of their its last 13.
“We're not peaking, we’re just getting started,” said a smiling Dreckmann. “We're just having a lot of fun. We come to the ball field every day. I mean, we're playing baseball. It doesn't get any better than that.”
Smothers agrees with his senior shortstop.
“This is what makes coaching fun,” said the skipper. “These guys are close together. We come out, we have a good time. We've got great kids, we've got great parents right now, and like I said, it's just a great thing to come out and coach these kids.”
The Blue Devils are keeping pressure on Lake Forest (19-4, 9-1) as the North Suburban Conference race heats up.
Both teams have four NSC games remaining as Warren trails the Scouts by one game. The tiebreaker sits in Lake Forest’s favor.
Despite the loss Tuesday, Stevenson believes it has made progress in finding the right pitch mix.
“It's basically just gonna be continuing to preach what we've been talking about the last couple weeks about getting ahead early in counts and filling up the strike zone,” said D’Amato.
“Even though we took the L today and we gave up some walks and some crooked numbers, we do feel like we're a step closer in figuring out the puzzle,” he added.
Perfecting that mix, paired with continuing to develop a young lineup, is priority for Stevenson to close the season.