Baseball: Carmel's season opener pays off for Banker

For the first time in his life, Carmel Catholic junior Ben Wiegman, a Division I-bound baseball pitcher, gladly threw a pitch off the plate.

Drawing the Opening Day start in left field for Carmel against visiting Libertyville was senior Brandon Banker, who before tearing his left labrum recently, was scheduled to be the Corsairs' leadoff hitter and center fielder. The returning starter is out for the season. Which is why he was shocked when, just before the game started, head coach Bill Taylor told him to grab his glove and go to left field.

Libertyville's right-handed-hitting Sam Paden stepped into the batter's box, and Wiegman delivered a pitch wide of the plate for ball one.

"I told Ben, 'Whatever you do, don't let him pull the first pitch of the game,' " Taylor said. "I didn't want (Banker) to have to lift that left shoulder."

Banker left the game after one pitch. He had dislocated his left shoulder in January, then had it pop out on him last week while playing basketball. He tore his right labrum about two years ago. He watched the rest of Friday's game from the dugout, as Carmel, despite managing just 1 hit, pulled out a 2-1 win over its Route 176 rival on a sunny, cold afternoon.

"I meant a lot, actually," Banker, who hopes to play club baseball at Creighton, said of his season-opening start. "Playing even just one pitch was great - my last Opening Day in high school. I've known pretty much half this team since I was like 5 years old."

So why the start in left field for Banker, instead of center field?

"Just a shorter run, and his mom could take pictures from the side better," said Taylor, smiling. "He didn't know he was going out there. I told his mother beforehand."

Every coach who has coached Banker tells Taylor the same thing.

"One of the first things I ask the coaches at the lower levels, before I ask them about kids' talent, is, 'Who are my leaders? Who are the guys I can count on?' " Taylor said. "Every coach that he has played for has said Brandon. Then as soon as he was in the (varsity) program last year, you could tell. He's a great kid. He's a leader. He'll do anything. He's the first guy out, the last guy to leave. You need equipment to be picked up, rakes on the field? He's there to do it."

Wiegman, who is verbally committed to Louisville, will do lots of pitching for the Corsairs again this season. The hard-throwing righty was the ace of the staff last season, posting a 0.98 ERA in 50 innings, and was effective against Libertyville (0-2). He pitched 4⅓ innings, allowing the Wildcats' lone run and 2 hits, while striking out four and walking two.

"It didn't work out exactly how I hoped as far as command and strikes go," the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Wiegman said. "I was thinking, 'Just pound the zone,' and I wanted to be dominate with all three pitches. Which didn't exactly happen. It kind of clicked in the fourth inning with my slider."

After looking at Wiegman's first offering of the game, Paden doubled to left field. He sped to third on a wild pitch and scored on Tanner Kelly's RBI groundout.

Libertyville starter Derek Calamari walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the first but escaped unscathed. In the Carmel fourth, with Jake Adams (0-for-2, walk, 2 stolen bases) on third and Lukas Galdoni (0-for-2, walk, stolen base) on second, Wiegman helped his own cause by blooping a single into shallow left field, scoring both runners.

The ball tipped off the glove of Wildcats left fielder Ben Lopez, as Kelly raced out from his shortstop position.

It was the only ball Carmel hit out of the infield.

"I guess you have to call it a hit," Taylor said. "That was a tough play for either one of those guys. One guy going back, one guy coming in, and they got to try to communicate. Bleeder. We'll wipe the blood off the ball (joking), and call it a hit."

Carmel junior righty Dylan Paquette, a late-season call-up last year, pitched the final 2⅔ innings for the save. Libertyville ninth-place hitter Brendan King touched Paquette for a two-out double in the seventh, but Paquette struck out Paden, who hit the ball hard three times.

Libertyville's 4 hits also included singles by Dylan Drumke and Calamari. Calamari struck out five batters in 3 innings. Charlie Land (2 innings) and sophomore Connor Lockwood (1 inning) did not allow a hit.

"Looking at the whole game, I thought we played well," Libertyville coach Matt Thompson said. "When you look at our at-bats, our guys battled all the way. I liked what I saw from our pitchers, too."