By Bolt Action- Photos by Renee Kaspar
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LISLE– Visiting the 13U Illinois Wolves on April 18 in Lisle for a matchup in WSBL play, were the Lombard Lightning. Last Season, the Wolves and Lightning didn’t face each other.
For each team, this would be a first time experience.
The Lightning is a team that chatters and rhymes a lot during games. Younger teams do that a lot from the dugout. They come up with nifty slogans or phrases that support the batter at the plate or ask a question which teammates respond to with an answer.
The Lombard Lighting 13U still provides plenty of those vocalizations at games.
This was a game Coach Brandin Muniz desperately wanted to get in as the forecast called for possible showers, but that wasn’t the only reason. No, not at all, the Wolves leader wanted to silence the visitors by scoring at will and shutting them down completely where not a peep was heard.
If you’ve seen the Wolves play this year, they do support their teammates, congratulate good play but most importantly, they let their play speak quite loudly for them!
No, you aren’t going to hear any sing-along or a team response to a team question, nope, just hit after hit, run after run and out after out, that in itself drowns out any noise coming from the opposing dugout.
This game followed Coach Brandin’s script as the Wolves silenced the Lightning after 4.5 innings, winning the short game by Run Rule at 10-2 for their 3-0 start in league play and improving to 14-1 on the season.
“We had good pitching, Michael (Petrbok) and Jackson (Martin) did as expected while we hit the ball well again,” said Muniiz. “We know what to do and how to do it. We want to keep getting better and keep learning and expecting to win. We want everyone to know who we are, and we’ll do that by playing the way we are currently, over and over again.”
With Petrbok on the mound, the Lightning mustered a solo base runner via a walk in the first inning. The Wolves Lefty struck out two to open the game.
The Wolves wasted no time getting ahead in their first at bats. Fred Sackley opened with a double. He was followed by Petrbok who laced a liner over the right field fence. Giving himself the 2-0 lead on the homer.
Slazak singled an out later and found himself at third base after a couple of Lightning wild pitches. He added the Wolves third run of the inning when Matthew Wiskowski sent a sacrifice fly to left field for the 3-0 lead after one.
After striking out the first two batters, Petrbok, in inning two, gave up only the second home run hit by opposing batters against the Wolves all season, giving the Lightning a run in their half.
After this game, the Wolves have hit an incredible 38 home runs compared to two by opposing batters.
The Wolves duplicated their run output of the first inning scoring three runs in their second and third innings.
Griff Sinkovich drove in Payton Swartzendruber after he doubled on a ground out. Another out later, Auggie Ruffolo singled and he also scored shortly after on Sackley’s sixth round-tripper of the year, upping the Wolves lead to 6-1.
“I got up to the box with a good mindset thinking about getting a hit,” said Sackley. “I really want to start the team off good and get a hit for us. I think it’s very important as a leadoff hitter to set the tone, if we can do that, we will have the upper hand the rest of the game.”
Sackley also mentioned the importance of getting on base as a leadoff hitter and what he needs to improve individually.
“Once I get on base, the others see we can get on base, and we just start piling on runs. I think for me I need to improve my two-strike approach, I’ve been striking out more than usual; my fielding, I’ve made a couple error I need to clean up.”
They made it 9-2 after the Lightning squeaked another run off Petrbok in inning three.
The Wolves countered in their third at-bat with Slazak hitting a tree-topper to lead off the bottom of the third.
Slazak is definitely seeing the ball well. His bat control and patience is paying off big for the Wolves as he leads the team in home runs and RBI’s.
“I knew he was going to throw some off-speed pitch, so I was sitting on that,” Slazak said. “He threw it, and I just put a bat on it and hit it over the trees. Felt good; everyone was saying all my homers are just out of the park but now I can say I hit over.”
“I’ve been just waiting for my pitch and hitting it wherever I can. The team has been great, we are really good at hitting and on defense.”
Later in the inning, Graham Johnson scored on an error after reaching base via a walk and Brady Madden added the third run of the inning after he too got a pass, on a Johnny Burke double.
Jackson Martin closed out the Lightning facing just six batters in his relief appearance. He was dominant as his curve and fastball struck out half the batters he faced.
The Wolves added the deciding run in their bottom half of inning four. Petrbok opened with a single. The Wolves proceeded to load the bases with Martin being struck by a pitch and Slazak singling. A fielder’s choice by Johnson scored Petrbok to up the score to 10-2.
The Run Rule was in effect, all the Wolves had to do was keep the Lightning from scoring and that’s exactly what Martin did to close out the game.
The Wolves are getting great play up and down the line up. To a man, they preach it’s a team and they are playing as a team, but one player has changed his production at the plate dramatically from the start of the season to now.
“I’m thinking better when up at bat than I did last year,” said Auggie. “Last year I just wanted to hit home runs, I’m thinking just put the ball in play now. Coach Brandin also helped, he said I kept drifting towards first base, he just wants me to stay put and watch the ball first before I run.”
Ruffolo also mentioned earlier in the year he was behind because he missed several practices so that put him into his early season struggles at the plate.
Auggie bats at the bottom of the lineup but don’t be fooled, from top to bottom, the Wolves can provide offense at will.
