Baseball: Palatine's Skelnik is stone-cold perfect
Palatine's TJ Skelnik didn't even think about the cold.
The Pirates lefty just concentrated on mowing down Maine West batters. And Skelnik's tunnel vision paid huge dividends for the senior.
Skelnik was perfect, retiring all 21 batters he faced Friday to lead Palatine to a 6-0 win in Des Plaines. He said the 36-degree temperature didn't bother him.
"I like it like this," Skelnik said. "It is cold for both teams. It just depended on who has the mental toughness. I was just trying to throw strikes and good things happen."
Skelnik made it look easy at times, striking out 13 along the way, including 7 of the first 9 batters he faced. He allowed just four balls hit outside of the infield and was in front in the count of almost every batter.
His biggest challenges came in the in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings.
In the fourth, Palatine third baseman Jack Hopper made a nice play on a slow roller. Luke Stoffel made a nice catch on a looping line drive in the fifth.
Skelnik had a more personal battle with the final Maine West batter. He ran the count to 3-2 and got the final out on a swinging strike.
"We have the team to do this every game," Skolnik. "We have good pitching, good defense and we have the offense. That's what it is all about.
"I was trusting my stuff. Coach (Brent) Carroll was making good pitch calls and I trusted my catcher."
Jake Anderson, who made sure that Skelnik had great targets for his perfect pitching said Skelnik hardly missed a a spot.
"It was amazing," Anderson said. "It was a great experience. We had a good guy on the mound. He was throwing strikes, and he was throwing all his pitches to all locations."
Palatine coach Paul Belo relished the first perfect game in his 20-year career.
"I don't know what to say about TJ," Belo said. "He struggled a bit his last few times on the mound, going back to last season as a junior. There was not a consistent arm slot. It just seemed to come together today."
Belo, along with Carroll, agreed to let Skelnik go past the 75-pitch count that was set up prior to the game. Skelnik finished with 92 pitches, 63 of which were strikes.
"Coach Carroll looked at me and said he was at the 75-pitch mark," Belo said. "We felt that how many times do you have an opportunity to do this. We let it go. We are pretty confident in what we do in the off-season and how we commit ourselves to arm care."
The only thing that has been cold for Palatine's baseball team has been the temperatures.
Palatine (6-1) got Skelnik some runs to help take some of the pressure off of him.
Max Myszka, who had 2 hits on the day, had an RBI single in the second to score courtesy runner Jason Rivera, running for Andersen who'd been hit by a pitch.
The Pirates tallied twice more in the fourth. Matt Helms singled in Rivera and Josh Stott later knocked home Helms to make it 3-0.
Palatine broke it open in the third when Skelnik helped himself by lofting a bases-loaded fly with two outs; the ball just eluded the Maine West defense as all 3 runner scored to make it 6-0.
Maine West coach Mike Randazzo, whose team dropped to 1-2 said Skelnik handcuffed his team.
"Their pitcher threw well," Randazzo said. "He played the conditions, worked fast and kept us off balance. It seemed like our guys were overthinking or under thinking. We were sitting fastball and he threw a curve. We never made the adjustments in the game."