Better Approach Boosts Kits Over Notre Dame

Baseball coaches in the Central Suburban League South division have decided to take a different approach to scheduling this spring, adding to the usual home-and-home concept by increasing the league slate to a full 15 games.

Evanston opens CSL South play with three games --- instead of two --- against Deerfield next week and the Wildkits have shown they could be up to the challenge in one of the state’s toughest baseball conferences.

The pitchers are ready --- head coach Frank Consiglio has seen enough of them so far to believe that. And the offense took strides Tuesday at Northwestern University’s Rocky Miller Park despite mustering just four total hits in a 6-1 conquest of Notre Dame in one of their final tune-ups before the conference race heats up.

Pitchers Elliot Paul and Johnny Kellams fired a combined 1-hitter as the Kits improved to 7-5 on the season. The pair dominated a Notre Dame team that earlier this season had earned a 6-6 tie with mighty New Trier and entered Tuesday’s contest with a 6-1-1 overall record.

But it was his team’s approach on offense that excited Consiglio most on another frigid spring day in Evanston.

Every player in the ETHS starting lineup reached base at least once, except for designated hitter Harrison Boes, and the winners pushed across five unearned runs by capitalizing on three errors by the Dons, plus five walks, two hit batters and a run-scoring balk. That’s a marked contrast to what the Evanston coaching staff has seen from the offense prior to Tuesday’s game.

“We’ve been practicing and working every day on our two-strike approaches, and we haven’t really seen any kind of improvement --- until today,” Consiglio confided. “In our last three games we struck out 33 times and only had four walks, and we had a .160 (team) batting average with runners in scoring position. And especially in this type of weather, if your opponent puts the ball in play more than you do, you’re going to lose the game.

“We had some key hits and walks with those two-strike approaches and I thought we took a big step today hitting wise. If we can continue to improve like that, you’ll see some success.”

Grinding out at-bats isn’t an easy task even for experienced hitters, and it’s even tougher for a Wildkit lineup that featured three sophomores in the starting lineup Tuesday. But the “walk is as good as a hit” theme you heard back in Little League can work at the varsity level, too.

At least it did Tuesday. The winners reached Notre Dame right-hander Christian Lopez for two unearned runs in the second inning --- without benefit of a hit --- and tacked on three runs in the fifth and another in the sixth. All told, ETHS struck out eight times, a marked improvement.

Evanston took advantage of a leadoff walk to Owen Vander Velde to start some trouble in the second. He scampered to second on a wild pitch, took third on an errant pickoff throw, and scored on Cole Vander Velde’s squeeze bunt that was botched by the Notre Dame defense.

With two outs, Zach Bachochin laid down a bunt and Notre Dame catcher Ryan Cisneroz threw the ball into right field. Cole Vander Velde scored easily on the play and Bachochin almost recorded a “Little League” home run but was gunned down at the plate for the third out.

The Kits did all of their damage with two outs and the bases loaded (via a walk and two hit batters) in the fifth. Reliever Mike Lobo committed a run-scoring balk before he even threw a pitch --- that made it 3-0 --- and then tossed a wild pitch that allowed Dion Lane Jr. to score.

Sophomore Tate Schroeder stole home against the third Notre Dame pitcher, Aidan Nowak, while he was in the process of walking Aaron Shalin, to boost the advantage to 5-0.

An epic 10-pitch at-bat by Owen Vander Velde before he doubled down the third base line earned an insurance run for ETHS in the sixth. Cole Vander Velde battled and lined a 1-2 field to the opposite field, over the shortstop’s head, to produce the last run.

On the mound, both Paul and Kellams were nothing short of brilliant.

Paul, a sophomore who looks more and more like a staff ace in the making every time he toes the rubber, faced only two batters over the minimum in the first five innings. He struck out five and yielded just a single by cleanup hitter Leo Connolly of Notre Dame in the second, then lost his command and issued two walks and hit a batter to fill the bases in the sixth.

Reliever Kellams allowed a sacrifice fly, then erased the threat by inducing pinch-hitter Nicholas Berndt to roll into an inning ending double play. It was Evanston’s second twin killing of the game, and Kellams retired the side in the seventh on three groundball outs to clinch the win.

“We’re still in our infancy. We’re still just figuring things out,” Consiglio said. “We have three or four guys who could be our No. 1 (pitcher), and there’s no reason why Elliot Paul can’t be that guy. He competed well in the big moments today, and every time he goes out there we see improvement. That’s all you can ask from a guy that age. He does everything we’ve asked so far toward being that (No. 1) guy.”

The new-look CSL South schedule will basically see matchups on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in April and May instead of the usual Tuesday-Thursday format. The Kits are at Deerfield on Monday, then return for what could be their home opener on Tuesday. Next Thursday’s game will also be played at Deerfield.

“The coaches have been talking about this for the last couple of years because they’re tired of splitting (two-game) series all the time. They want it to be a best 2-of-3,” Consiglio explained. “You’ll have to depend more on your depth this way. I really don’t know yet if I’ll like it or not.”