By Bobby Narang- Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p934653714 **
PALATINE – One day after massive dust storm set off phone alarms and a subsequent series of lightning strikes in the area led to a postponement, the 13U Illinois Wolves were back on the field on Saturday morning.
Instead of warm and sunny weather – like the previous five days – the Wolves battled a strong wind, cold temperatures and a sudden dip in competition level.
All three conditions seemed to affect the Wolves throughout their two games on Saturday at Community Park in Palatine. With the Wolves possessing superior size, strength and athletic ability than both of their opponents on Saturday, it oddly came down to execution, patience and timely hitting – which the Wolves had in short supply in both games.
Luckily, the Wolves started strong before fizzling out in the final few innings, recording a 10-2 victory over the Palatine Travelers in teh Casey Pohl Memorial Tournament. On the surface, the numbers look good for the Wolves.
They belted 14 hits and did not commit an error, scoring three runs in the first inning and adding a four-spot in the second, a single run in the fourth and closing out the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the fifth in the time-shortened game.
But the Wolves could’ve put the game away early but struggled at times against Palatine’s group of diminutive pitchers.
“We had a lot of walks in that game,” Illinois Wolves coach Brandin Muniz said. “In a game like that, it pulls hitters out of rhythm a little bit. It took a little bit to get us going. Once we did, it sped up the game and helped us. We just needed to adjust faster and be ready.”
The Wolves had several big hits in the win, led by Graham Johnson’s RBI chopper down the third base line for a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Matthew Wiskowski kept the inning alive with a single to pad the lead to 3-0. Leadoff hitter Fred Sackley ignited a four-run second inning with a two-run double down the left-field line for a 6-0 advantage.
Johnson, a third baseman, said the Wolves took a few innings to get heated up in the opener.
“It was an early game and I think we weren’t ready for it and it took a while for us to get our bats going against slower pitching,” Johnson said. “It was nice to win the first game by a lot of runs after our slow start. It was nice to win the first game and gave us a little bit of a boost for the second game.”
The Wolves scored just one run in the next two frames, relying on Michael Petrbok’s groundout RBI for an 8-2 cushion in the fourth. The Wolves missed a golden opportunity to put the game out of reach in the fourth, scoring just a single run despite loading the bases via a single by Julien Duque and consecutive walks to set up the top of the batting order.
In the fifth, the Wolves closed out the game via an RBI single by Payton Swartzendruber followed by Burke’s adding a run-scoring single. Wiskowski did most of the work on the mound, pitching three innings in the windy weather striking out eight and allowing just two hits and one run, and Johnson came in relief, striking out four while allowing one hit and one run in his two innings to end the game.
“I thought it was a good game overall, but we should’ve scored more runs,” Johnson said. “We had a lot of runners on base.”
Several players contributed to the eight-run victory, including Jackson Martin lacing a triple in the first inning. Griff Sinkovich had a single and a stolen base and Auggie Ruffolo finished with a single and a walk in his two at-bats. Johnson was 2-for-3 at the plate and Christian Slazak added a walk and a single.
“Our pitchers did well in the first game, but we have to hit better and be ready at the plate and adjust better to different pitchers,” Muniz said.
