Rhoades slugs WW South past Glenbard South

The last time Jeremy Rhoades hit two home runs in a game, last year against Glenbard North, he also broke a bone in a finger.

This time he just tore the stitching off the baseball.

The Wheaton Warrenville South senior added a single and a triple to his pair of home runs, driving in 9 runs while going 4-for-5 in the Tigers’ 14-4 victory against Butterfield Road rival Glenbard South in Glen Ellyn.

“When I went up thinking fastball, and when I got my pitch I just went after it,” Rhoades said of his homers. “The triple I kind of got fisted on, and it was a good fastball too. I just missed it.”

“That’s a career day right there,” WW South coach Tim Brylka said. “You don’t have many of those. Jeremy’s been hitting the ball hard for us, and obviously he continued to do that today. He’s been a good leader for us, a senior.

“We’d been struggling a little bit with the bats, and that’s a good way to bust out.”

After hitting two homers earlier in the week, Rhoades has four on the season.

The game was a pitchers’ duel the first four innings. Only Aaron Beese’s third-inning solo homer marred Tigers senior Parker Ryndak’s outing. It was Beese’s first home run at any level and the Raiders’ first of the season.

“He’s one of the guys who’s taken advantage of an opportunity with these other guys (Ben Gaspar and Roger Dyrda) being out with injuries,” Raiders coach Mike Riley said. “He may not have gotten his opportunity had those guys not gotten hurt. He’s stepped up his play pretty well for us.”

Ryndak, pitching in his first game since off-season labrum surgery, gave up just 1 run in five innings. He walked two, struck out five and gave up two hits, and he hit 86 mph consistently on the JUGS gun with his 70 pitches, topping out at 89 mph.

“We’re happy to have him back,” Brylka said. “He had a good outing. We didn’t want to extend him too much.”

“The only thing that I could point out that was wrong with him is that he walked a couple of guys early,” Rhoades said. “Then he came down, focused a lot, was throwing right over the strike zone and getting guys out. He did a good job in his first outing.”

The Tigers got their bats going in the fifth inning. With two out and Kevin Bridges and Zach Jarosz on base, Rhoades tripled to left field, then scored on an error, with Ryndak reaching base. Ryndak scored on sophomore Rich O’Neil’s double to right-center, and the Tigers led 4-1.

They weren’t done.

The Tigers batted around in the sixth inning, which included Rhoades’ 3-run home run hugging the left-field line.

“He killed us,” Riley said.

Glenbard South (5-5) cut the lead to 10-3 with a couple of runs in the bottom of the sixth, which included a Beese double and his second run of the game. Ethan Gasbarro also scored.

But the Tigers (4-5) erased any doubt in the seventh on Rhoades’ grand slam over the scoreboard in left, scoring Matt Sturgeon, Bridges and Steve Lemm ahead of him.

“When it rains it pours, I guess,” Brylka said with a smile.

With his top two pitchers, Gaspar and Dyrda, out with injuries, Riley threw his Nos. 3-4-5 pitchers during the week in a Metro Suburban Conference series against Riverside-Brookfield. He had to turn to sophomore Tony Tenuta to start Saturday’s game on the mound. Tenuta did well before tiring in the fifth, despite taking a line drive off his shin from the second batter of the game.

“We’re a young team. The first kid (Tenuta) is a sophomore,” said Riley, who has four sophomores in his lineup. “He’s going to be all right.”