By Patrick McGavin-Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
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JOLIET— In a game built on versatility, the Illinois Wolves 13U know how to upend the basic conventions.
Different styles and manner of play emerge in multiple parts. The most critical is attacking the other team and generating runs.
Scoring is a skill, and so is taking advantage of every loophole or opportunity that turns up.
This is a team always prepared to go for the jugular.
“Toward the beginning of the game, we were struggling to hit that first pitcher,” Fred Sackley said. “We just used a lot of bunts and small ball actions to move the baserunners over.”
The big hits the team is notorious for became instead a volley of cuts and stings that took their toll.
The Wolves created relentless pressure and opportunities that broke down 5 Star Great Lakes Meyers. The result was a convincing 10-2 five inning victory in the semifinals of the Primetime City of Champions tournament on Sunday, June 8 at Inwood Park.
The Wolves (40-5-1) collected 12 hits and played flawless defensively with no errors.
Most significantly, they turned the game into a track meet, and scored in a wealth of different ways and fashion.
“These tournament games are different,” coach Brandin Muniz said. “You’re trying to score as many runs as you can, and limit the other team. The pace is just different, and every run is super important. We tend to use more small ball style in these situations, and that helps us.”
Starter Brady Madden scattered four hits in 4.1 innings, striking four four and allowing just two earned runs.
The second batter he faced drilled a double into right center. He was unfazed by the early adversity.
“I just move on from that,” he said. “It’s a new batter, and a new pitch. I started throwing strikes. No matter what happens out there, I always stay confident and positive in my head, and never get down on myself. The top of their order was terrible with the offspeed.”
Sackley went 2-for-3, scored a run and knocked in three runs as the leading offensive player.
His two-run triple in the fourth inning helped break the game open.
Madden was the only other Wolves’ player to gather an extra base hit with a double.
Spencer Marnell and Christian Slazak had first inning singles wrapped around a walk by Jackson Martin that loaded the bases.
Marnell scored on a wild pitch, and Martin quickly followed on a throwing error on the catcher trying to get Marnell at home plate.
The Wolves never trailed again.
With the game knotted at 2-2 leading into the bottom of the second, the Wolves broke out and seized command. The team pushed across four runs in each of the second and fourth innings, triggering the tournament slaughter rule.
Only half of the 10 runs (five) were credited as RBI actions, the three by Sackley, and one each by Burke and Madden.
After a leadoff double by Matthew Wiskowski in the second inning, Burke created the game-winning run by smashing a hard single up the box.
“We can do damage in a lot of different ways,” Burke said. “No matter who we play, we just have really good approaches to playing teams.”
“In a tournament like this, there’s a lot more intensity. The other games, like the ones in conference, they matter but these games are definitely a lot more important to us.”
Nine different Wolves’ players collected at least one hit. Sackley, Slazak and Wiskowski had two hits apiece.
Martin, Burke, Madden, Payton Swartzendruber, Griff Sinkovich, Auggie Ruffolo each had one hit.
Four of the runs were scored off aggressive baserunning, and forcing mistakes from the other side.
“The small ball seemed to work, and it got a fire going,” Sackley said. “We started to get to their ace, and then we started to attack the new guy and string some hits together.”
“The past couple of games, the same players have tended to be hot. We’re picking each other up, and people are doing what they need to do.”
In the two different conferences the Wolves play in, the opposite teams and players tend to have fixed identities, and a large degree of familiarity and known tendencies.
The tournament games are the uptime wild card, marked by the unknown and a rapidly evolving dynamic.
“In the conference games, we go in and we usually know what the other team is about, and we have the upper hand,” Sackley said.
“In these tournament games, these teams might bring in new players, and you don’t always know what to expect. We have to take every team very seriously.”
The two-run Sackley triple in the fourth inning was the hammer blow.
By their very definition, these tournaments are showcase events.
The Wolves like the heightened attention, and the ability to prove their worth and skill.
“We’re keeping our energy up in all of these games,” Sackley said. “We’re trying to show who we are, and what we can do. We’re seeing a lot of different teams. It’s cool to tally off against different teams in the state. We can say now that we beat them, and not just local teams.”
Madden used the offspeed to stymie the top of their order, and used his fastball to whip it past the bottom.
The mixture proved potent.
Swartzendruber pitched the final two-thirds, and struck out two for the Wolves.
For all of the different parts, the Wolves are a very disciplined team.
“Even if someone is hitting how they’re used to, or how they want, they’re doing other things,” Sackley said.
“They’re laying down bunts, and doing positive things.”
In the 10-2 semifinal victory, the Illinois Wolves had many crucial contributors.
Graham Johnson and catcher Julien Duque also showed off their special talents. Duque had a spectacular throw on a runner trying to steal third base.
