By Bobby Narang- Photos by Renee Kaspar
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Franklin, Wisconsin – The 12U Illinois-Lisle Wolves traveled north to test themselves against some of the top teams in the area.
And the Wolves certainly passed the test, even if they showed no signs of happiness following their sixth and final game in The Rock Youth Baseball Tournament on Sunday night.
The Wolves reached the title game with an impressive 3-2 victory on Sunday afternoon, earning a chance for a tourney title.
But Whitefish Bay Jr Dukes Blue came out sluggish, getting runners on base to put some pressure on the weary Wolves. Whitefish Bay rode a strong start to an impressive 9-3 victory over the Wolves in the title game of the 12U King of the Rock.
In the first game Sunday, the Illinois Wolves played a near perfect game, combining timely hitting, a tough-as-nail pitching performance from Nico Villanueva, solid fielding and baserunning – and good coaching – to reach the final game of the tournament. The Wolves played one game on Thursday, two on Friday, one on Saturday and two on Sunday.
But Sunday’s finale was another story. The Wolves fell into an early hole and never recovered, committing ghastly errors, losing focus, struggling to piece together hits and get runners on base and showing mental and physical fatigue. Even injuries were a factor in the final game, with catcher Tyler Sokolnicki hurting his thumb early in the game and second baseman Eamon Muldoon suffering an in-game injury.
“We thought we would sit pretty coming into the championship game,” Illinois Wolves coach Brandin Muniz said. “We did. Our lineup I still feel is very strong. I wouldn’t really change anything. We couldn’t come up with routine plays, which made it very frustrating. I give credit to Christian Slazak. He hit the ball very hard today, but it wasn’t falling for him. He did a great job pitching, but it’s very hard to win when you have to get five outs in an inning.”
“I think a lot of the guys who you wouldn’t expect to step up did, but some of our bigger hitters were off this tournament. We had some key, key hits all tournament, like from Johnny Burke, Griff Sinkovich and Auggie Ruffolo. Those three came through in a big way and were a big part of why we got here. This was our first time participating in this tournament. It’s a great tournament.”
Whitefish Bay scored one run in the opening inning, two in the second, three in the third and added a three-spot in the fifth frame to make a loser out of starting pitching Christian Slazak. Muniz said his team played tough despite trailing 6-2 after three innings. Muniz said the power-packed tournament was a good test for his players, especially with the conditions. Sunday’s finale was windy with a slight breeze, causing some coaches and fans to bundle up after dealing with sweltering conditions in the first game on Sunday.
But a few players finally let out smiles after receiving large second-place medals during the postgame ceremony.
“We played some tough teams,” Muniz said. “We had a tough pool. We thought the winner of this tournament would come out of our pool, but us beating on each other early forced us to use some players early. We played Park Ridge twice, and playing them twice against this Thursday. We all beat up on each other a lot, used certain pitching and it was little unfortunate. We would’ve liked to have an easier pool to get to the title game, but it didn’t work out that way. They were all tired. It was a long weekend. I give a lot of credit to (Whitefish Bay). They are a good team and hit the ball well. I still feel confident in our boys. I think we could’ve pulled it off, but just fell short. It happens.”
Even in a six-run defeat, the Illinois Wolves had several memorable moments in the title game. Johnny Burke opened the game with an RBI and eventually scored on a RBI groundout by Michael Petrbok to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead. The Wolves’ strong start forced Whitefish Bay to take out their starting pitcher with one out in the first inning.
With the score knotted at 1-1, the Wolves battled strong with another solid start in the second inning. Griff Robinson drilled an RBI double, scoring on Michael Petrbok’s groundout to give them a 2-1 edge – the last time the Wolves would lead again in the game.
Errors and mental mistakes started piling up for the Wolves in the final three-plus innings, allowing Whitefish Bay to build sizeable leads of 6-2 and 9-2 in the game. Slazak, a right-hander, kept pitching strong even though he was forced to continually toss extra pitches because of several errors. He battled tough throughout the game, keeping Whitefish Bay from scoring more than three runs in a single inning.
Petrbok had a couple of highlight-reel plays in the defeat, throwing out a runner at first base on a sure-free single. Petrbok raced to a groundball hit to him in right field in the bottom of the fourth inning, scooping up the ball and firing a bullet throw to first base to record the out to keep Whitefish Bay. His play was a major factor why Whitefish Bay did not score a run in the fourth inning – the only inning they failed to score in.
“I saw it coming to me, and I knew I had to get to the ball really quick and try and throw him out at first,” Petrbok said. “I was pretty happy.”
In the top of the sixth inning, the left-hander drilled an RBI double to centerfield to cut the deficit to 9-3. He finished the game 1-for-3 with two RBIs.
“It was a nice hit,” Petrbok said. “After I hit it, I knew it was going to be in the gap and saw it was going past the outfielder. I was pretty happy we made it this far, and we were playing really well up until our last game. Our defense was doing well. We were hitting (well). We just stunk in the last game.”
Griff Sinkovich summed it up best when describing the final game. Sinkovich tried his best to keep his team in the game, batting 1-for-2 with one run scored.
“It was pretty frustrating because I feel like we were just tired from the whole weekend,” Sinkovich said. “We were really worn down. We fought hard, but we can’t win every game in every tournament. We had a good time. It was really fun this whole weekend, just being here with my friends and teammates and playing baseball. The fields were really nice, too.”
Burke, who played centerfield, was one of the top players in Sunday’s title game, batting 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored to lead the offense, especially with Slazak having a rare off-day at the plate with an 0-for-3 effort.
“It was nice to get to the title game,” Burke said. “I think we beat ourselves. We rolled over in that last game as a team, not just one person. I think we have to come into a championship game with a better mindset, like if you make an error, just come back and make the next play. Being in this tournament and beating Flash and winning both games against Park Ridge made me think we can really do well as a team. If we didn’t roll over today, I think we could’ve won the last game.”
Ruffolo, a leftfielder, had one RBI in the title game. Ruffolo said Sunday’s final game should help the Wolves down the road.
“I learned that not all teams are teams we can walk over,” Ruffolo said. “We left off our first game on a high note but we were kind of worn out from all the games. The weekend was really fun. Our defense was not the best in the championship game. We have to get better.”
