By Patrick Z McGavin- No Photos were allowed by Tourney Director
JOLIET—Navigating the natural ebb and flows of a season is often the hardest part about the game. The psychology of success and the burden of operating under duress is impossible to overstate.
A game played between the lines is the hardest mentally.
Julien Duque did everything imaginable to not let the recent past weigh him down.
“I’ve been in a slump recently,” he said. “It feels like the last time I had a solid hit was about two tournaments ago.
“I knew there were a couple of strikes, and his second pitch almost knocked me over. I ducked, and I was honestly so mad at that point, I used that anger to my advantage.”
Duque blasted a bases clearing three-run double that momentarily gave the Illinois Wolves 13U a dramatic lift.
“I felt like I did my job,” Duque said.
The Wolves’ comeback ended in a bittersweet 9-9 five-inning tie with Cangelosi Sparks Mueller in pool play of the Miss Gloria Mother’s Day Tournament on Friday, May 8, at Inwood Park.
The Sparks forged the tie with a dramatic fifth-inning home run off Wolves’ reliever Christian Slazak.
Under the time limit of the tournament format, the game was mandated to end after 1:45, with the Sparks, as the official home team, accorded a final at-bat.
The back and forth affair featured three lead changes and two ties. The Wolves were hampered by four errors and seven strikeouts.
The game was nothing if not dramatic.
“It was almost like ping pong, two very talented teams going back and forth,” infielder Fred Sackley said. “We stuck in there. We had the lead at the end and then we lost it, but a tie is better than a loss, I guess.”
The Wolves (24-4-1) again demonstrated depth, versatility and a feel for the big or necessary play.
The team collected 11 hits, and eight players had at least one hit. Outfielders Jackson Martin and Auggie Ruffolo had two hits apiece. Starter Matthew Wiskowski and Slazak handled the pitching responsibilities.
Wiskowski struck out two, gave up a walk, seven hits and four earned runs in 2.1 innings of work. Slazak had four strikeouts, and allowed two runs, three hits and a walk in 2.2 innings.
It was a game at various junctures that threatened to detail the Wolves. The team responded, adjusting to the circumstances and standing up to the multiple challenges.
The team trailed 2-0 after the first inning, and more damagingly, 8-5 after giving up an uncustomary five runs in the third inning.
In a game of rhythm and momentum, the Wolves are trying to rediscover the passion and momentum that marked their early-season play.
The competition has jumped up a couple of levels. This was a rare game where the Wolves had to execute down the stretch.
“At the beginning of the season, we were pounding on some lower level teams,” Sackley said. “Now that we’re playing against some higher level teams, we’re letting the games slip away from our hands. I think we need to stay prepared, and look at the other team as a good team instead of a bad team.”
It was also the kind of game where few things stayed the same. The moment was reactive, intense and drawn to unpredictable swings.
That was true of both sides, and the Wolves delivered the first turnabout in the top of the second inning in trailing 2-0.
Designated player Jonny Burke was the first agent of change with a hard two-run single that sparked a three-run third inning by the Wolves.
“Two guys got on, and I just told myself all right, I’m going to look for the fastball,” Burke said. ”He threw me a first pitch curveball, and then another curveball, and then a high fastball. Then I teed off on that other fastball.
Burke was the No. 8 hitter in the Wolves’ 12-man powerhouse lineup. That place or standing is often irrelevant.
With the team capable of scoring double-digit runs every time, the players know what is expected of them.
“It doesn’t matter where you land in the order,” Burke said. “When it’s your chance, you have to run and make something happen. You just have to hit the baseball.”
Opportunity and working in the clutch also matters. Outfielder Griff Sinkovich followed with a hard liner through the box that scored Burke for the 3-2 lead.
Sackley delivered the most impressive hit of the day for the Wolves in the top of the third with a massive shot down the left field line for a two-run homer for the 5-3 lead.
In a game where nothing stays the same for long, the Wolves suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of an 8-5 deficit after the Sparks put up five runs in the bottom of the third inning.
The Sparks did just enough, and were opportunistic to find open gaps in the outfield with flares and short balls that found empty spaces.
The 1:45 countdown clearly factored into the final stretch. The Wolves showed greater urgency.
Wiskowski coaxed a walk and Burke reached on an error. After an out, Sinkovich loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch. Up stepped Duque to be the hero in waiting.
The Sparks played the percentages and brought in a left-handed reliever to face the left-handed hitter.
Give one for Duque, who smashed the ball into deep right center for the three-run, game-tying double.
“I saw the pitch, and I just tried to get the barrel on the ball,” Duque said. “I felt like I stepped up. It would have been terrible to get a strikeout and an out after almost getting hit with the ball like that.”
Ruffolo appeared the game-winning hero with his own version of a hard single up the middle that scored Duque for the 9-8 lead. He never looks down at being the last player in the batting order.
“This is a great lineup, and it doesn’t matter where you fit there, because we can all hit,” Ruffolo said. “I actually like being up on the end of the order because you know there’s always going to be more guys on, and I like to get those RBI.”
A tie in pool play is not fatal, and a much better outcome than a loss in determining where the Wolves figure into the championship bracket.
Not a win, but not a loss, either. The Wolves learn to come back and fight another day.
”We’ve been losing some bad games, like today,” Sackley said. “We kind of didn’t play that well. We could have done better. I think we need to pull it together, and get something done.”
The Illinois Wolves 13U had many standout contributors in the 9-9 tie. Those players were Graham Johnson, Brady Madden, Michael Petrbok and Payton Swartzendruber.
