Baseball: Oak Park fields a winning effort against Elk Grove
Getting runners on base wasn't the problem for Elk Grove's baseball team on Thursday afternoon.
Getting them all the way around and scoring, well, that's another story.
Oak Park-River Forest denied the Grens with double plays and even an amazing triple play as fourth-seeded Elk Grove ended its season with a 6-0 loss to the top-seeded Oak Park-River Forest in the Class 4A Loyola sectional semifinal played at Munz Campus in Glenview.
The game was scheduled for Wednesday, but was moved back a day after the field was unplayable due to heavy rain on Tuesday afternoon.
"Obviously, double plays and a triple play hurt us," said Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna. "We got hits, but we failed to get the big hit to kind of break through.
"I thought it was a good day to score runs, and I thought we would score some runs. But I do give (Oak Park) some credit. I thought we had a better game in us than what we put out there. There's some disappointment on my end for that in the small picture. In the large picture, we'll say goodbye to the seniors, look to improve and work to be at this point next year."
The Huskies (28-6) had the answer each time the Mid-Suburban League champs mounted a threat. Only once did Elk Grove (25-13) have a runner reach third base, in the third inning. But the Grenadiers managed to get someone on base in each inning and finished the game having stranded seven runners.
Oak Park had double plays in the first and sixth innings and pulled off a triple play in the fifth inning. On that one, shortstop Andrew Hennings took a groundball on the third base side of second. He flipped the ball to second baseman Jeremy Gaines, who tagged the runner who was supposed to be moving from second to third. Then he stepped on the bag and he followed up with a throw to first base.
"I never thought I'd be involved in that," Gaines said. "I haven't done something like that since tee ball, and that was a conventional step on third, throw to second and throw to first. I never thought I would do it again. It was awesome to do it in front of all these fans in this atmosphere. We were down at that point and with no outs I thought, like, 'Here we go.' It really picked us up."
Elk Grove's Auburn-bound Christian Camacho (1-for-4) was involved in the triple play as the runner going from first to second base. He couldn't believe what he was witnessing.
"I was shocked on it," Camacho said. "I was stunned, and it was a crazy play to see. Once I saw him step on second base, I really didn't know what to do. I just thought the whole play was hectic. It was a great play by the shortstop and it was a heads-up play.
"(Oak Park) didn't allow us the big hit, and that was huge in the game. They set the tone early with a couple of runs and we had a chance to score in the first and didn't capitalize on it."
The Huskies scored twice in the their half of the first. Gaines reached on an infield single, stole second and third base, then came home on a wild pitch. Then Connor Nelson homered to center field for a 2-0 advantage.
Oak Park added 2 more runs in the third inning as Dali Durazo had an RBI groundout and Scott Christie added a run-scoring double.
Hennings scored on an throwing error in the fourth inning, and Durazo scored on a fielding error in the sixth.
Luke McMahon picked up the victory for the Huskies. He didn't allow a run in 6 innings of work while striking out five with 1 walk.
"We got ourselves out of some tough situations when (Elk Grove) had guys on and nobody out," McMahon said. "We got some double plays, and the triple play, on some hard-hit balls. If we're not in the right position, then we're not going to turn them.
"Nobody is easy at this point. I respect the game too much. When you're in the sectionals, you're never gonna have easy games. Elk Grove beat a very good Loyola team (last Saturday) to get to us."
Oak Park will meet second-seeded New Trier in the sectional final at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Trevians beat third-seeded Notre Dame in the other semifinal 2-1 on Thursday night.