Baseball: Warren's Houtz leaves no doubts
Brandon Houtz's last name rhymes with "outs."
Truth be told, Warren's senior right fielder has made few outs lately. But if Houtz's performance in varsity baseball tryouts last year suggested to his coaches that he would make too many outs, this year he is proving he belongs.
No doubts about it.
Cut after tryouts as a junior, Houtz is showing this spring not only that be belongs on the roster but that he deserves to be starting. Which he's been doing lately for the Blue Devils, while giving his coaches reason to continue believing in him. His 2 hits, including a tiebreaking 2-run single in the top of the seventh inning lifted Warren to a 7-3 win over host Libertyville in North Suburban Conference action Tuesday.
"He was one of the last guys we kept," coach Clint Smothers said after his Blue Devils (12-2, 4-0) swept their two-game series against the defending NSC champions. "He wasn't in the lineup at all (at the start of the season). He got his chance down in southern Illinois (over Spring Break), and we can't take him out of the lineup."
Houtz had played baseball his freshman and sophomore years.
"I was feeling really good coming in to tryouts (last year)," Houtz said. "I thought I had a good tryout, but I just didn't make the cut. That was pretty tough."
It only brought out the toughness in Houtz. He didn't give up on the game. He lifted weights early in the morning and hit in the batting cage late at night.
"I just stuck with it, stayed motivated," Houtz said after going 2-for-3 with a walk and 2 runs scored. "I got back in the weight room in the off-season and just continued to get better. I just love to compete. I could say that for every one of these guys. Top to bottom in our lineup, we're just a bunch of competitors. Baseball is fun."
The game hasn't been as fun for Libertyville (5-7, 1-3) this season.
"Disappointed with the record, for sure," Wildcats coach Matt Thompson said. "I felt we'd be winning more games. We just haven't played the ball that we're capable of playing. Hopefully they respond."
Libertyville starter Ryan Klainos struggled with his control, walking three batters in the second inning and six in 4-plus. Despite allowing a base-loaded walk to Casey Cobe and an RBI double to Gabe Schmitt in the second, the Valparaiso-bound Klainos left with a 3-2 lead. The second inning ended when Klainos got Mikey Kocen to line out to Houtz with the bases loaded.
"I love that he battles when he's gotten into trouble," Thompson said of his right-hander. "If he cleans up a few things, hopefully he won't get into trouble as much."
Warren pulled even in the fifth on Thomas Kenney's RBI single, then scored 4 runs in the seventh thanks in part to a one-out error, walk and hit batsman. One out after Houtz's go-ahead single off Peyton Jennings, Ryan DeVries singled off the third-base bag to plate two more runs.
Warren junior lefty Ryan Scanlon earned the win in relief of Bradley Vondruska, who made his first pitching start of the season. After Libertyville touched Vondruska for 3 runs in third thanks to RBI singles from David Robertson and Derek Calamari and a sacrifice fly from Dylan Drumke, Scanlon shut down the Wildcats over the final four frames.
"Bradley didn't have his best stuff but he battled and battled and battled," Smothers said. "Scanlon kept the hitters off-balance and did a great job."
Leadoff hitter Andrew Kim went 2-for-4 with 2 stolen bases for Libertyville, which continues to look for answers.
"It's quite frustrating, knowing that this group is really close," the Illinois-bound Kim said. "It's tough expectations to live up to after last year. Everybody's got high expectations of us. We have a target on our back in the conference."