Photos by Lauren Gray
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LISLE— The 13U Wolves are a team that has a distinct advantage over many others, it’s depth in their pitching staff.
Why is that an advantage?
When you have pitching depth, you’re referring to a team that has the ability to rely on multiple effective pitchers beyond their game starter, which is crucial in baseball, providing a team with the flexibility to manage a strong level of performance throughout a long season, for example, in case of injuries or match ups against certain foes.
Just think; a deep staff of effective pitchers can also prevent burnout by over use and keep your pitching staff healthy throughout the season.
The Wolves have enough at the pitching position, where nearly every player among the 13-man roster can pitch.
In their game against the LSA Lightning on April 29, the Wolves used four different pitchers, each providing the quality pitching that warrants you a victory.
Payton Swatrzendruber got the nod on the mound against the GCBL opponent. The Wolves came in at 4-0 in league play and would do a back-to-back with the Lightning over the next two evenings.
After the array of pitchers thrown against the Lightning, the Wolves came away with their fifth victory in five tries in the new league with the 7-5 win.
Swartzendruber gave up two runs on three hits in his two innings of work. He allowed a run in each inning to open the game.
The Wolves countered offensively by also plating a pair of runs in their second inning.
Back-to-Back home runs by Christian Slazak and Graham Johnson tied the game after two innings.
Fred Sackley next took to the mound for the Wolves in relief of Swartzendruber. After striking out the first batter, a couple of errors allowed a Lightning batter to get on base and eventually advance to third.
A strike out later, the Lightning took the lead back after hitting a two-run home run for the 4-2 advantage. Sackley did end up striking out the side but trailed by two.
Sackley helped his own cause after Auggie Ruffolo earned a walk. On a 1-1 pitch, Sackley powered a 2-run home run over the right field fence. As soon as he hit it, Sackley knew he got all of it and watched it momentarily head out of the ballpark to knot the game up at 4-4 after three innings.
Sackley’s second inning on the mound was much easier, throwing 11 pitches in the inning retiring the Lightning in order.
The Wolves finally took the lead for good when Slazak again homered (2nd of game) to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning.
Michael Petrbok did add another hit in the inning but was called out trying to stretch a single into a double after a slight hesitation.
Graham Johnson next headed to the mound for the Wolves. Although he gave a hit and walked two Lightning batters to load the bases with one out, he coaxed a hit back at him as he started the 1-2-3 double play to end the Lightning threat.
The Wolves next sent eight batters to the plate in the bottom of fifth and proceeded to tact on 2 more runs but struck out twice looking, one with the bases loaded.
Both the Wolves runs were courtesy of the generosity of the visiting Lightning as Auggie Ruffolo and Swartzendruber both received walks with the bases loaded.
With the two added runs, the Wolves’ advantage heading to the sixth was 7-4.
The Lightning closed the gap in their sixth inning after belting another home run, this time off Johnson. With the dinger, the Lightning trailed 7-5.
The Wolves did get a double from Johnson after an out in their sixth inning, but he was left stranded after a flyout to center and a pop out to second base.
Called on to close out the game was Slazak. After a leadoff single by the Lightning, Slazak caught the Lightning runner leaning and threw a perfect pick off to Johnson, who applied the tag for the first out of the inning.
Next Lightning batter was hit by a pitch, but he was later forced at second on a toss by Griff Sinkovich to Sackley. The last out of the game was a soft comebacker to Slazak who tossed over to Petrbok for the out and the 7-5 victory, remaining unbeaten in GCBL play at 5-0 and 21-2 overall.
