By MIles Toogo- Photos by Renee Kaspar
**Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p707451017 **
MOUNT PROSPECT— Timely hitting and dominant pitching are a great formula for winning baseball, especially when limited by time.
The Illinois Wolves 13U concocted that potion against the Lake County Lightning in their second game of the “Experience the Turf” tournament held on June 14 in Mt. Prospect.
Home runs were the offensive catalyst for the Wolves, belting three in route to a 7-1 victory.
Christian Slazak, Jackson Martin and Matthew Wiskowski each cleared the fences during the game, but it wasn’t the power shots that was the feature of the game.
Starting pitcher’ Matthew Wiskowski was easily the “Star” of the game
“I felt good on the mound,” said Wiskowski. “My fastball was blowing past them; they couldn’t hit it. In the early innings I was having trouble locating my curveball, but then I got it going too.”
Wiskowski was brilliant on the mound.
His over-powering fastball and mixture of pitches had the Lightning in a guessing situation.
As the game went on, Wiskowski was more dominant and after four innings, the Lightning seemed to be conceded to the fact that they were overmatched by him.
“The last few games pitching, I’ve really come into the game with a more positive mind-set and that’s helped me a lot more,” Wiskowski said.
What the Wolves pitcher did was beyond stellar.
He started the game striking out the first four batters he faced.
He struck out the side in each of his first four innings and in his last inning, he struck out two of three he faced.
Wiskowski struck out 14 of the 19 betters he faced in the game while allowing just three measly singles and one walk.
“I thought Matty (Wiskowski) looked good, he mostly pitched ahead in the count and that always helps,” said Coach Brandin Muniz. “He clearly was on today and really performed well for us.”
To say Wiskowski was great is still an understatement.
In tournament play, you want to get ahead quickly for several factors and add as many runs as possible while limiting what you give up. This determines your bracket seed.
The Wolves did just that in their first at-bat.
After a Spencer Marnell double, one out later, Christian Slazak took a 1-0 pitch and sent it flying over the left-centerfield fence, putting the Wolves up 2-0 after an inning.
“First pitch I saw, it was kind of low, “said Slazak. “Then coach Brandin called my number which I knew was going to be off speed, so I kind of just sat on that and then he threw me a high one and I caught up to it and took it out.”
“When I hit it, the wind was blowing in where it was going, I knew I hit it good but thought it might hit the top of the fence but it cleared easily.”
Slazak hit his 18th home run of the season.
With Wiskowski dialed in, the Lightning were just filling the batters-box but did manage to get a hit in inning two, but nothing came of it as Wiskowski kept making them whiff.
The Wolves padded their lead in the bottom half.
Michael Petrbok led off lacing a single, he would score soon after on a Wiskowski double. Wiskowski added the second run of the inning when Auggie Ruffolo singled, upping the lead to 4-0 after two innings.
The third inning saw the Lightning get a runner to second base after a walk but again, Wiskowski struck out the side to maintain the Wolves lead.
The Wolves used the long ball again, this time Jackson Martin connected on a 3-2 Lightning pitch that sailed high and cleared the right-centerfield fence, driving in Marnell who walked previously. The Wolves now led 6-0.
The Lightning did plate a run in their fourth. Two hits managed to produce their lone run of the game to cut the lead to 6-1 but again, Wiskowski gained three more strikeouts to close out the Lightning fourth.
Wiskowski wasn’t just performing at a high level on the mound, his bat also provided some reward. Wiskowski showed some power when he added to the Wolves run tally, hitting the Wolves third dinger of the game. The 1-0 pitch landed beyond the left field fence to up the Wolves lead to 7-1.
“First pitch, I felt I was being kinda targeting because it was very inside, so next one I saw it down the middle and I just took it and hit it out,” said Wiskowski.
“I think our pitching has been amazing, a lot teams can’t hit us well, so our fielding doesn’t have to work as much. I also think as a team we are hitting pretty good.”
Wiskowski also added about confidence of the team and the teams pitchers.
“I am confident when we get ahead by several runs and I think the other pitchers are too because even if we give up a run it doesn’t matter, we’re still ahead.”
After forcing a groundout to Fred Sackley at second base, Wiskowski struck out the next two batters for the complete game win and earning the Wolves the top seed in the tournament with their 19th win in a row.
