Baseball: Cary-Grove's Thompson goes all out to keep shutout intact

Cary-Grove second baseman Jack Thompson made a diving catch to preserve a 2-0 shutout of Hampshire in Cary Tuesday.

The Whip-Purs had a runner at third base with two outs in the top of the seventh inning when Thomas Ugalde hit a humpback line drive up the middle.

Thompson sprinted right, laid out parallel to the ground and snagged the ball before it touched dirt.

"At first I didn't think I'd be able to get to it," Thompson said. "The wind held it up a little bit."

The junior's clutch defensive play preserved a combined shutout for starting pitcher Quinn Priester and long reliever Ethan Estes (1-0).

Priester did not pitch last week due multiple rainouts. He started the game, watched by several major-league scouts, but threw only 2 innings and struck out four. The senior was limited to 30 pitches to save him for a longer outing Friday at Jacobs or Saturday's home doubleheader against Jacobs and McHenry, Cary-Grove coach Ryan Passaglia said.

Estes baffled hitters for 5 scoreless innings. Whereas Priester attacked with fastballs in the low-to-mid-90-mph range, Estes used a sharp, 12-6 curveball to keep the Whips (14-10, 9-8 Fox Valley Conference) in a perpetual purple haze. The left-hander limited them to 3 hits and struck out four.

"You've got 95 and then come in with a 60-mph curveball?" Hampshire coach Frank Simoncelli asked rhetorically. "It's nice to pair that up."

It was the third time this season Estes followed Priester in a victory. They teamed to beat Palatine in the season opener and Wauconda on the spring break trip downstate.

"I think we work pretty well," Estes said. "We kind of go hand-in-hand with his fastball and I think I've got a pretty decent curveball."

Cary-Grove (18-5, 12-3) scored twice in the third inning against Hampshire starting pitcher Nick Sladek (2-2), a senior who held the Trojans to 2 runs (1 earned) on 2 hits and a walk and struck out a pair.

Drew Stengren reached second base on a throwing error to open the Cary-Grove third. Will Klicker's infield hit put Trojans at the corners. A Sladek wild pitch allowed the first run to score.

Thompson subsequently bunted in a 2-1 count with Klicker tearing down the third-base line. The successful suicide squeeze established a 2-run lead.

"He's the kind of guy I want up in big situations," Passaglia said of Thompson. "We got a nice squeeze bunt from him and he continues to play great defense. That's the way he's played all year."

Sladek managed the only hit against Priester, his Crystal Lake Cardinals travel teammate of four years. He chopped a swinging bunt toward third base for a hit.

"I was so mad," said Priester, unable to contain a smile. "He rolled one right into the ground. It didn't go past the mound, but he got on first."

Priester returned the favor by drawing a sixth-inning walk. The competitive old friends found themselves laughing as Priester fouled off four two-strike pitches to keep a 10-pitch at-bat alive.

"Every pitch after it got to a full count I couldn't stop laughing," Priester said. "And he was smiling. It was a fun at-bat. He's one of the funnier kids I've ever met."

"I had him in a full count for like six pitches and then I walked him," a smiling Sladek said. "I was like, 'C'mon.'"