Baseball: Crystal Lake South's Tyrrell just misses perfect game

Crystal Lake South pitcher Noah Tyrrell nearly turned Saturday's spot start at Hampshire into one for the books.

Making his first varsity start after multiple relief appearances, the junior right-hander carried a perfect game into the top of the seventh inning.

The bid was spoiled by Hampshire leadoff man Noah Schrader's clean double pulled down the right-field line, but it was the only hit the Whip-Purs managed in Crystal Lake South's 7-0 victory.

Tyrrell (1-0) didn't overpower the Whip-Purs as much as he kept them guessing. Using an accurate curveball and changeup to supplement his fastball, he induced 13 groundballs, which Crystal Lake South's infield vacuumed up error free.

"I was just trying to pitch it away and low and get groundballs because I have a really good (defense)," Tyrrell said.

Normally the first baseman for Fox Valley Conference-leading Crystal Lake South (22-1, 13-1), Tyrrell proved to be a critical part of that good defense. Six times in seven innings he successfully stabbed a comebacker to the mound and recorded an assist, capped by the final out of the game.

In that instance he fielded a swinging bunt off the bat of Kyle Homa and flipped it to catcher Ryan Parquette in time to tag the runner attempting to score from third standing up.

"He just kept us off-balance. We were all rolling over everything," Schrader said.

"We were out in front and we weren't able to make the necessary adjustments to combat what he's showing us," Hampshire coach John Sarna said. "He did a very, very good job of mixing it up. When you can throw multiple pitches for strikes, you are going to be successful in high school."

Tyrrell issued a walk after Schrader's seventh inning hit and nothing else. Striking out 4 in a remarkably efficient outing, he breezed through the first 5 innings in 40 pitches and needed just 70 pitches overall against 23 batters. Not bad considering what CL South coach Brian Bogda was hoping to get from Tyrrell.

"The goal was to get him through maybe half the game and then go to another kid for the second half of the game, but, obviously, he was on," Bogda said. "He just kept them off balance and did a really nice job of throwing strikes and he got a ton of groundballs. And I was really pleased with our defense behind him."

The Gators scored 4 times in the second inning against Hampshire junior right-hander Kevin Kardas (0-1), also making his first start. CL South catcher Ryan Parquette had the big hit in that rally, a 2-run double that staked his team to a 3-0 lead. Parquette finished 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and 3 RBI.

Griffin Bright went 2-for-4 with a triple and scored twice, and Brian Fuentes, Kory Olsen, Michael Swiatly and Scott Skwarek drove in runs for the Gators, who won their 10th straight since a 5-2 loss to McHenry on April 18.