Baseball: Ohlwein, Lakes find their grip against Lake Zurich

He pushed around defensive players as an all-conference offensive lineman for Lakes' football team and asserted himself as a power forward during the basketball season.

Tim Ohlwein doesn't necessarily rely on overpowering batters with a heavy fastball, however. Rather, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior likes to toss a pitch that seemingly requires less muscle.

A knuckleball.

"That's the only off-speed (pitch) I throw," Ohlwein said.

He had his knuckler dancing and his fastball moving Friday against Lake Zurich, as the host Eagles won 10-0 in a North Suburban Conference crossover. Stephen Mogged's RBI single with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning ended the game.

Ohlwein (3-0) pitched 4 innings of three-hit ball, as Lakes improved to 4-6. In three starts this season, totaling 11 innings, Ohlwein has yet to allow a run. In fact, he pitched no-hit ball against both North Chicago (3 innings) and Zion-Benton (4 innings).

"Tim was great on the mound," Lakes coach Ray Gialo said. "He came back on short rest (after throwing Monday against Z-B), threw 70-some pitches, changed speeds and was terrific."

Ohlwein estimates he'll throw the knuckleball about 15-20 times in a game.

"My dad taught me it when I was younger, and I've thrown it since like fourth grade," Ohlwein said. "He told me it didn't put a lot of stress on the elbow or the arm, like a curveball (does)."

An A-student who says he plans to study actuarial science at Florida State, Ohlwein was sharp, so to speak, from the opening inning. He got a pair of strikeouts to start the game, then after Lake Zurich (4-6) put two runners on thanks to a single and an error, Ohlwein notched another strikeout.

Lakes gave its pitcher all the offense he needed in bottom of the first, scoring four times. Seven straight batters reached against Bears starter Nick Sanders after one out. Brandon Khan had a bases-loaded two-run single, and Ryan Selig and Jack Christensen followed with RBI hits.

Kahn lifted a sacrifice fly, and Selig had another run-scoring single in a three-run second inning.

Lake Zurich coach Tom Reagan lifted Sanders after just 1⅓ innings. Sanders allowed 4 hits, walked four and hit two batters. He was charged with 7 runs.

"He's been having a great year," Reagan said. "Today was uncharacteristic. He's really impressed us. Unfortunately, it was just a bad day."

Ohlwein struck out five and walked two. Ian Haflinger pitched the fifth for Lakes.

"I'm just making sure I throw a lot of strikes and letting my defense play," Ohlwein said.

Selig and Christensen each finished 2-for-3. Mogged, a junior outfielder who's committed to Southern Illinois, was 1-for-2 with 2 walks and 2 stolen bases. Ben Milewski added an RBI double.

"I thought our guys did a great job of being focused," Gialo said. "We weren't focused the last couple of days, and it cost us two big division games (back-to-back losses to Wauconda)."

Freshman Tyler Snep, Cam Boyle and Matt Svanson had the only hits for Lake Zurich.

"Hats off to Lakes," Reagan said. "They threw strikes, they fielded the ball, and they hit. We just got beat by a better team today."