Baseball: Brunelli, Gledhill lead Buffalo Grove past Wheeling in extras

Going extra is the thing at Buffalo Grove.

The Bison went into extra innings for the third consecutive game Wednesday, knocking off Wheeling 5-4 in 10 innings in a Mid-Suburban East baseball game that was moved to Buffalo Grove because of wet fields at Wheeling.

Buffalo Grove (16-8, 8-5) beat Wheeling 4-3 in nine innings on Monday. They also went seven innings on Tuesday against Elk Grove in a game that was suspended

"It's not like we are backed up with our games and need a little time off for our pitching," Buffalo Grove coach Tim Miller said. "We will just play extra."

Also doing the extra was Buffalo Grove's Matt Brunelli and Carter Gledhill.

Brunelli, who has hardly pitched all season, was summoned in the seventh inning. Brunelli got an inning-ending double play and allowed just a walk in the final three innings to pick up the win.

The junior also did it with his bat. He belted a 2-run homer to tie the game at 3-3 in the sixth. He also led off the bottom on the 10th with a double and came on to score the winning run on Gledhill's single.

"I haven't pitched in a while," said Brunelli, who struck out 4. "I can't remember when I pitched last. But I knew my coaches had confidence in me and I just threw my stuff."

Miller was ecstatic about Brunelli's performance.

"He was huge for us," Miller said. "He hits the home run and then has a huge hit in the 10th and also comes in and slams the door. He played up for us last year as a sophomore, so that is what we expected from him."

Miller didn't know what to expect from Gledhill this season. But the senior has more than delivered after returning from his second major knee injury in two years.

Gledhill, who tore his ACL before the start of football last year, returned to help lead the Bison to a sectional title last year. Gledhill again tore his ACL in the Week 8 of the football season and played the final two games. He had surgery back in November and was back behind the dish when the season began.

"If I could do it once, I knew I could do it again," said Gledhill, whose homer in the bottom of the sixth put Buffalo Grove up 4-3.

"I have had tremendous support from everybody. I wouldn't trade this for anything. I love this team and I love this school. Especially these guys who are my brothers and my coaches. People call me crazy for doing this, but I just see this as an awesome opportunity to keep playing baseball."

Wheeling (11-14, 6-8) had taken a 3-1 advantage into the bottom of the sixth thanks to a pair of RBI singles by Michael Best and an RBI single by Spencer Nowak.

After the pair of homers by Buffalo Grove in the sixth, Wheeling rallied to tie the game on an RBI single by Jeremy Kim in the seventh. But the double play ended that threat and the Wildcats only had one baserunner from there.

"Right now we are a little snakebit," said Wheeling coach Jason Wieder, whose team has played four consecutive 1-run games, losing three of them.

"Some of that is self infliction on the bases. I am proud of our kids. They fight and come back and grind it out."

Riley Rundquist had 2 hits, including a double and an RBI for Buffalo Grove. Cade Zalewski had 2 hits for Wheeling.