No Photos Allowed by Tournamnet Director
Joliet— Over the season, one consistent for the Wolves is how they start a game.
If the Wolves start fast and score multiple runs to start the game, the likelyhood of them winning is very high. If they start slow and let a team get out ahead of them, coming back is difficult most of the time but not unheard of for this offense.
Some players like batting first while others prefer to have the last at bat. In league play where there is no time limit, it doesn’t factor in but during tournamnet play, getting off fast and jumping ahead unusally ends in a positive.
Of the 13 games won in league play, 11 have been won by Run Rule. If the Wolves are ahead after three innings, they will likely win. Only twice has that not been the case whether in league or tournament play.
Getting off to a fast start bodes well for the Wolves!
After advancing to the winners bracket, the Wolves would face Top Tier North in their opening elimination game.
With Christian Slazak on the mound for the Wolves, the Wolves bats gave him more than enough support, blazing to a 15-5 win on May 11 in Joliet.
The Wolves statrted fast as the visitors and jumped out to a 3-0 lead after an inning.
They hungered for more and went on to add an additional 9 more runs in inning two to put the game on ice as Slazak was giving Top Tier glimpses of his pitching, mowing down their batters in order, six up, six down.
Ten hits by Wolves batters in the first two innings saw them go ahead 12-0.
The first inning saw hits by Fred Sackley (2B), Jackson Martin(1B) Slazak (2B) and Graham Johnson (1B). RBI’s by Martin, Slazak and Johnson scored Sackley along with Slazak and Johnson in the inning.
The second inning was a barrage of of power by the Wolves, Back-to-Back-To Back home runs including a grandslam highlighted the inning. Martin drove in four runs on his Slam while Slazak and Johnson followed with solo shots of their own.
Sackley, Payton Swartzendruber and Brady Madden also grabbed hits with each also scoring in the inning along with Griff Sinkovich, Julien Duque and Auggie Ruffolo also crossing the plate.
Top Tier tried to muster a comback and even scored three runs in their third at-bat with three hits and a couple errors by the Wolves, but Slazak regrouped and closed out Top Tier with a flyout to left field to keep the score at 12-3.
After Martin grabbed his third hit of the game, hw scored on a double by Slazak who tried to stretch it but was called out at third after Martin scored to lift the Wolves to a 13-3 lead after four innings.
Relieving Slazak on the mound, Matthew Wiskowski was greeted with an error in right field but a great thrown to second base saw the Top Tier batter thrown out for the first out. Wiskowski did hit a batter and he would later score on a following double, but thats all Wiskowski would give up after a strike out to end the fourth.
The Wolves went on to add to their lead in their fifth inning. A Johnson triple would score one batter later on Wiskowski’s single. He too would score aftera sac bunt by Johnny Burke got him in scoring position, From there, Wiskowski scored on a fielders chioice by Duque to up the score to 15-3.
Top Tier did plate two more runs soon after but it was little too late.
Wiskowski got the next three batters in order with two strikeouts and a soft grounder to second to end the game at 15-5 and moving them on to the semi-final game of the Miss Gloria Mother’s Day Tournament.
