By Miles Toogo- Photos by Alexa Bordick
Woodridge─ Statistics are a part of baseball that are unavoidable.
For every position on the field, defensive statistics are kept. Putouts and errors by infielders and outfielders are gathered. Catchers are also scrutinized and fall into the bunch under a baseball microscope.
For pitchers, the categories of statistical breakdowns are numerous. Just about anything you can think of is tallied and deciphered with magnifying glasses.
Offensively, successes and failures are monitored every at bat from batting average to a bevy of offensive individual statistical categories.
Baseball as a whole, relies heavily on them to determine a player’s worth to the team not only offensively but also defensively at every level of play.
The pressure to succeed at bat and when a ball is hit your way can be hectic for some. You see it every game, especially at the youth level where the game is still being honed for many.
Player’s love seeing their stats especially when they’re on the positive side. Just part of the game and the norm for America’s Pastime.
So, we know Individual statistics are the norm as a monitoring system for each player.
Team wise, statistics are also an indication of successes and failures.
For the 12U Illinois-Lisle Wolves, after 37 games, enough statistical information has been generated to give a clear picture of what makes this team tic, what is likely to end up in success and what could lead to failure.
When the Wolves scored early and held a lead after three innings, they have lost just once!
Their forte is to score early, maintain the lead either with solid defense, good pitching or adding to their run tally to complete the win.
When they trail after three innings of play, only three times have they managed to come back and win or tie.
One of the comebacks took place recently in Woodridge. Although the Wolves didn’t come out victorious, they didn’t taste bitter defeat either.
A conflict of umpiring scheduling saw the Wolves play six innings and settle for the 8-8 tie to a team they had previously beaten soundly earlier in the year, 11-1 in four innings.
Playing down to the level of their competition at times has plagued the bats for the Wolves along with poor defensive play, faltering starting pitching and indecisiveness, this allowed the Bulldogs to build a 7-1 lead after three innings.
“I just think after one error, we get down on ourselves,” said Graham Johnson. “It’s hard coming back down a lot of runs; I’d rather be playing ahead the whole game.”
The Wolves finally found some positive in their play when a walk to Gavin Smith turned into a run on a ground-out by Michael Petrbok, trailing 3-1 at that point in the third inning.
The lead increased to 7-1 as an error at second followed by three singles and a home run off starting Wolves pitcher’ Petrbok, catapulted the Bulldogs to a surprising 6-run advantage after three innings.
The Wolves chipped away at the Woodridge lead, scoring another run after Nico Villanueva launched a homer over the right-field fence.
The blast cut the lead to 7-2. Unfortunately, the Wolves left runners on base and failed to score again in the fourth inning.
Johnson relieved Petrbok on the mound and in his two innings, allowed just a solo run on three hits after not being on the mound during a short hiatus.
“I think I would give myself a B grade. I struggled with my curve ball warming up, I tried aiming it higher,” said Johnson. “It was hitting the dirt.”
“Sometimes I feel like in the field, I over-throw someone and I start thinking to myself I gotta get it there. I started getting back into being on the mound and I told Coach Brandin I want to be on the mound more in our last tournament.”
The Wolves were running out of at bats headed into the fifth inning.
A good start gave the Wolves some life. A single by Petrbok started the rally. Johnson followed with a single of his own. A fielder’s-choice by Christian Slazak scored Petrbok but forced out Johnson at second.
With two outs after a liner to third by Quinn Robinson, Villanueva again provided more scoring, belting his second bomb over the right-field fence, scoring two more Wolves runs.
“I felt that my fielding wasn’t very strong, but my hitting was decent,” said Villanueva.
“My first at bat was a strike out, I didn’t like that, I got mad, and I hit two homers. I changed a little bit with my swing to help elevate the ball. We just got to keep on fighting and not give up. We were more aggressive later in the game, we didn’t want to lose.”
The Woodridge lead was down to 7-5 but they would increase their advantage in their fifth at bat, plating a solo run off Johnson for the 8-5 lead.
Down to their last at bat, due to the umpire needing to leave early, the Wolves trailed by three.
The Wolves took advantage of four walks in the inning and managed to see runs scored by Tyler Sokolnicki, Eamon Muldoon and Petrbok to tie the game at 8-8, all on just a solo single by Smith in the inning.
The Wolves batted around but left the bases loaded.
Villanueva looked to close out the Bulldogs. He gave up a lead off single but left the Bulldog runner stranded on second after striking out the next three batters to end the game tied.
Also contributing in the game was right fielder Auggie Roffolo.
The Wolves were hopeful of winning out the remainder of the season, but illness and outside commitments left the Wolves short handed with just nine players and with the tie, now are unsure of taking the top seed in the upcoming WSBL playoffs.
