Photos by Gary Larson
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Mt Prospect— The Pride of the Fox Tournament on Turf held on April 26-27 in Mt. Prospect, was one of the competitions the 13U Illinois Wolves had marked on their schedule as a tournament where they could make a statement by continuing all their early season successes.
Heading into the tournament, the Wolves entered with an 18-1 won/loss record. Tournament directors awarded them the top seed in the tournament of 19 teams.
On their schedule, the Wolves would face a familiar foe in the Glen Ellyn Rebels, a team they had Run Ruled earlier and a winless Slammers team.
After dismantling the Schaumburg Flyers in their previous game, the Wolves looked prime to continue collecting wins.
The Wolves began the tournament against the Rebels, a team they knew and expected to defeat.
Games in this event would be an hour and forty-five minutes long or six-innings, which ever came first.
The Rebels would face Wolves’ Michael Petrbok on the mound. Petrbok had only faced the Rebels for an inning previously and gave up just a run then. This time, the Rebels would see much more of the Wolves lefty hurler.
A complete game performance by Petrbok had given the Rebels just a pair of runs and saw him gain the 3-2 victory on April 26.
When you watch Michael Petrbok on the mound, he gives the appearance that he’d rather be elsewhere, but the lefty is deceiving in what he does. He has a good amount of pitching talent even when he looks like he’s not into it.
“I just like to focus, I don’t like to show any emotion when I pitch,” Petrbok said. “I just try to keep myself composed as much as I can and I don’t like showing anything. I still need to improve on my pick-offs. Still, I’m happy with my performance, a Win is a Win”
Petrbok gave up two hits in the game but also balked twice including balking in a run. The first batter he faced reached on a double to start the game, after that he retired the next three batters, but the Rebels did take a 1-0 lead after their first at-bats.
The Wolves speed then went on to generate two runs in their first at bats. Speedster and leadoff man’ Fred Sackley was hit by a pitch, that quickly turned out to be as good as a triple as he stole second and third consecutively.
Petrbok helped himself with a single that scored Sackley. As the pitcher, teams are allowed to substitute runners for them and catchers, to help speed up the game if they reach base.
Usually it’s the last batted out, in this case it was the last batter, which again saw Sackley on first base in place of his pitcher. He again proceeded to steal second and third and scored again in the inning on a ground out by Christian Slazak.
The Wolves led 2-1 after an inning
The Rebels stranded a man on second in their next plate appearances as Petrbok took control for the Wolves.
The Wolves next two innings saw them go down in order. The lone hit By Payton Swartzendruber was eliminated by double-play and followed by two putouts by the Rebels first baseman, a come back to the pitcher and popup to the second.
The Rebels tied the game after a couple singles in their third but it was a balk by Petrbok that brought in the tying run.
The Rebels, as it turned out, were not anything like their previous meeting with the Wolves and were playing stellar defense while the Wolves were looking for answers to the pitches coming at them.
Petrbok kept his team in the game by limiting the Rebels inning after inning but was lacking the run support the Wolves were known for. The remainder of the game, Petrbok didn’t allow a batter past second base.
The Wolves were putting the ball in play but now grounders were right at Rebel fielders and soft fly balls were easy outs as the game moved into the bottom of the fourth inning still tied at 2-2.
Sackley kicked started the Wolves offense with a single, He stole second and soon was at third on a wild pitch. A sacrifice fly out by Jackson Martin saw Sackley cross the plate with what turned out to be the winning run an inning and a half later.
Sackley is lethal at the top of the order. If he gets on base, it’s almost guaranteed he’ll soon be on third ready to score on anything. His base running and speed are an asset every team covets, he generates scoring opportunities at will as he maneuvers through the bases.
“Our past two games, we really haven’t been hitting well, I don’t know what going on,” said Sackley. “A lot of us have been rolling it over or popping up, we just gotta get locked in. For me, I just try to stay mentally focused, I don’t try to mess around before or during the game, I do my business and get on base and try to get in scoring position quickly. I get to third base as quickly as I can.”
When asked what works well for his team, Sackley added,
“I think when we got energy in the dugout, we’re all swinging bats, right now, I think we have low energy, playing early in the morning may have been a factor.”
The Wolves only had three hits in the game, with two of them in the first inning, a low on the year but still managed to win.
A one run lead might as well been 10 the way Petrbok was handling Rebel batters.
Going out in the top of the sixth inning, his job was to maintain the lead and he did just that, closing out the last three batters in order for the difficult 3-2 Wolves win.
