Deerfield Bounces Back, Earns Series Win

Deerfield’s pitching staff knew what to do with a late lead in the Central Suburban League South division baseball series that concluded on Thursday.

Evanston’s pitchers are still trying to figure it out.

The Warriors scored a 5-3 victory after Chase Golding’s 3-run homer in the top of the fifth inning Thursday and bounced back to win the best-of-3 series after dropping the opener on Monday to the Wildkits.

Deerfield also pounced on the ETHS bullpen late in Tuesday’s 9-3 triumph. The back-to-back losses dropped Evanston farther into the CSL South cellar at 1-5. The Kits fell to 7-13 overall.

Evanston head coach Frank Consiglio insists there’s still time for his team to turn things around, both in the conference race and looking ahead to the postseason. And Johnny Kellams, who was the team’s No. 2 starter last year, is expected to make his mound debut against New Trier next week after being sidelined with an injury.

Kellams’ return could make a difference for an Evanston staff where the starters haven’t delivered deep outings on many occasions this spring. That, in turn, has forced Consiglio to throw his inexperienced hurlers into the fire of CSL South competition in higher leverage scenarios.

More than once, those hurlers have been burned.

“So far, we’ve been at a clear disadvantage (against Maine South and Deerfield) in the late innings because of our inexperience,” Consiglio remarked Thursday. “We have to find a way to put games away or we’re going to get to the point where the feeling is like, oh no, here we go again.

“These guys (pitchers) all have a bright future, but they have to figure things out. They have to figure out how to help this team in the late innings. What separates us right now from the other CSL teams is that, when those teams go to their bullpens, it seems like they get stronger. You see a good pitcher at all times in the CSL, but if we keep pushing, we can stabilize the back end (of the ETHS staff).”

Evanston got the mound effort that was good enough to win from starter Sam Kalil on Thursday. The defeat fell into the “hard luck” category for the junior right-hander, who struck out five in six and one-third innings. He did yield 11 hits --- four of the infield variety --- but kept forcing Deerfield’s hitters to hit the ball on the ground on a warm (80 degrees) day where the wind was blowing out at 20 miles-per-hour.

One mistake cost the righty. After Jack Agrun and Matthew Willner pushed ground ball singles through the infield for Deerfield (6-10 overall, 4-2 CSL South) to start the fifth inning, Kalil left a fastball up in the strike zone and Golding hammered a shot over the fence in left center.

“I thought Sam was really effective today,” praised Consiglio. “We battled and Sam battled, and that one swing by that guy changed the whole series. That was the only mistake Sam made.”

For the second straight game, however, the Kits couldn’t do much damage to the Warriors’ bullpen. Between them, relievers Jesse Feldman and Sean McNair only allowed a single by Nate Willman, a couple of walks and a hit batter while striking out four in a combined four innings of work.

Evanston pulled within 4-3 after one of those walks, a two-out free pass to Aaron Shalin. Tate Schroeder (2-for-3) launched a fly to deep left center that Deerfield’s Alex Edgar apparently lost in the sun, and the miscue made it a one-run game.

The hosts had two other chances to score late against McNair, a lefty who also finished off Tuesday’s 9-3 win at Deerfield. In the sixth, an error and a wild pitch left pinch-runner Matt Gilroy on second base with two outs, but Elliot Paul lined out to right for the third out.

In the seventh, Shalin grounded into a game-ending double play after Ryan Rappoport walked.

Tuesday’s loss came after Schroeder’s second homer of the season tied the game at 3-all in the sixth. Then the Warriors chased ETHS reliever Calvin Hayes with a double and a walk in their half of the inning, and Tyler Long yielded an RBI single, two consecutive walks that forced in another run, and a grand slam homer by Golding before finally retiring the side.