Baseball: Glenbrook South's Pauly cools off Maine South
Both arrived at the same time, but Glenbrook South's Kevin Pauly was even more effective.
The only thing that cooled off Maine South more than the North wind that arrived in the fifth inning was Pauly's pitching. The junior retired all seven batters he faced as the Titans held off Maine South 7-6 Tuesday in Park Ridge.
It was a winds of change for Glenbrook South (7-3, 2-0).
Pauly relived starter Matt Rosenberger in the bottom of the fifth, with the Titans leading 7-6 and runners on second and third. At nearly the same time Pauly took the mound, the balmy temperatures dropped nearly 25 degrees as the winds switched to the North.
Pauly got a grounder to short to end the threat. He went on to strike out three of the final six batters he faced including the last two to get the save.
"It's just having an ego," Pauly said. "Who is better than you? When I am on the mound, I feel I am always better than the person there. And just throw it right by them. I just smoked through the hitters."
Glenbrook South coach Steve Stanicek said he felt the cold from the wind and from Pauly.
"They did arrive at the same time," Stanicek said. "Kevin Pauly controlled the strike zone. He just pounded the strike zone. And we played good defense behind him."
Glenbrook South built a 2-0 lead thanks to a towering homer by James Hackett in the first and and a ground ball RBI by George Korompiles in the third.
Maine South (5-6, 1-1) scored four times in its half of the third.
The Hawks loaded the bases on consecutive hits by Alexander Gonzalo, Timmy O'Brien and a sweet bunt by Andrew Randazzo. They all scored on wild pitches. Luke Karcik, who walked, then scored on Sammy Marin's double to make it 4-2.
Glenbrook South came back with a 5-spot in the fourth. John Henry Russell singled and was followed by Sava Dupor's double. Russell scored on Rosenberger's single and Dupor tied the game on Hackett's sacrifice fly.
With two outs, Cole Luckey reached on a three-base error on a misplayed fly to right, scoring Rosenberger. Korompilas then drilled a 395-foot homer to center to put the Titans up 7-4.
"It felt good," said Korompilas, who has two homers this season. "I have been working on pitch to pitch adjustment and I was able to get on top of it and drive it."
Maine South chipped away at the lead scoring runs in each of the next two innings. Karcek had a sacrifice fly to score Randazzo and William Meyer singled home pinch runner Nikitas Vaselopulos to close the gap to 7-6.
But the iceman cometh in Pauly to give the Titans the win.
"Their pitcher did a good job," Maine South coach Brian Lorenz said. "The last couple of innings there, putting up a couple of zeros. We just couldn't catch the ball. We made a few key errors that cost us."