Baseball: Glenbard East gets big inning in beginning of win over West Chicago
Glenbard East's baseball team always feels like a big inning is coming.
The Rams didn't have to wait very long on Tuesday.
They batted around in the bottom of the first and rode that momentum to a 6-2 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division victory over West Chicago in Lombard.
The 5-run burst was especially important after the Wildcats opened the game with a 2-run top of the first on Ryan Schmidt's 2-run, two-out single. After that rough patch Rams starting pitcher Taylor Westerhoff settled in for 6 solid innings.
"The top of the first we kind of saw it going south, but we knew we'd get it back," said Rams junior Bret Bushka, who drove in the first run with an RBI single. "It really helped that we got right back on top. We've started out slow in a lot of games this year, but it was nice not to have to wait until the fifth, sixth, seventh inning. We don't want to get in the habit of having to wait for that big inning."
Westerhoff retired seven straight after the 2-run single and allowed only 2 hits over his final five innings. West Chicago starter Jeff Zajac also settled down, allowing no hits from the second through the fifth innings.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats (5-20, 2-11), they couldn't recapture the plate success of the first inning. They had runners on second and third with one out in the sixth inning but Westerhoff pitched out of the jam.
"We came off the bus ready to play with a lot of intensity, but then we struggled in the bottom of the first," said West Chicago coach T.J. Nall. "Both pitchers did a good job stabilizing and keeping the game where it was. It's a shame we gave them that big inning in the first."
Jeremy Johnson and William Brown added RBI singles in the first inning. Mitchell Glennon also drove in a run with a groundout.
The Rams (19-10, 9-4) scored their final run in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Noah Davies.
"Taylor's been our workhorse on the mound all season," said Glenbard East coach Joel Pelland. "And offensively we put together a pretty good inning. When a team scores on us, we have to answer back. Scoring five was huge for us."
Follow Kevin on Twitter