Baseball: Lisle's McGrath stifles Wheaton Academy
Whatever the sport, you won't find a more fierce competitor than Lisle senior Jay McGrath.
It's that exact competitiveness the Lions' baseball team needs this season.
The three-sport standout pitched 5 strong innings in Wednesday's 3-2 nonconference victory over Wheaton Academy in West Chicago.
Anthony Raineri's RBI single in the top of the sixth inning drove in A.J. Casmer with the go-ahead run. With Sam Russo adding 2 scoreless innings of relief to McGrath's effort, it looks like the Lions (5-4) found a couple answers on the mound as they head into Interstate Eight Conference action next week.
"We trying to figure out who's two, who's three?" said Lisle coach Pete Meyer, whose team received a strong outing from Casmer on Tuesday. "We want it to be Jay because he's Jay. He's a competitor and did a great job today. And that was great for Sam to come through in a tough situation like that. I feel like I got two answers today."
McGrath, who improved to 3-0, allowed 7 hits but he pitched to contact and trusted his defense. Three Wheaton Academy runners were caught stealing by catcher Connor Nigro and a fourth was picked off.
"This is my third outing and it felt a lot better today," McGrath said. "Hopefully, I can keep that up all season. We've got a lot of competitors on the team this year and we all want to win. I think that's one of our best assets."
Lisle took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first off Warriors starter Luke Roman, who settled down for the next four scoreless innings. Casmer had an RBI single followed by McGrath's run-scoring double.
Max Martin doubled home a run for the Warriors (8-3) in the bottom of the third. An infield hit and an error tied the game 2-2 in the fifth.
In addition to the four runners cut down on the basepaths, Wheaton Academy stranded four runners, two in scoring position.
"Hat's off to them, they played a great game," said Warriors coach Justin Swider. "We've got to cut down on some of our mistakes. We need to learn from them and get better. We need to be able to execute when the situation calls for it."
Twitter: @kevin_schmit