Evanston's 1-2-3 Punch Decks Andrew

Forget about the combination of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman at the top of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ batting order.

Evanston is the high school baseball team that features a Murderer’s Row in the 1-2-3 spots.

Back-to-back triples by Eron Vega and Braden Grimm with two outs in the bottom of the 6th inning powered Evanston to a 7-5 victory over south suburban power Andrew in the home debut for the Wildkits Wednesday.

Along with No. 3 hitter Charlie Kalil, the trio accounted for five hits, three walks and three runs scored as the Kits improved to 9-2-1 on the season.

The offensive firepower provided by those three returning starters from a year ago has set the tone for the rest of a prolific offense that constantly chips away and scores on opposing pitchers. The Wildkits don’t hit the long ball much, and they don’t score a lot in bunches, but they’ve only been held to fewer than five runs in a game once so far in the 2024 campaign.

Grimm (.375 batting average), Kalil (.371 with a team-high 13 hits and 11 runs-batted-in) and Vega (.312 average) have supplied steady offense right from the start of the season while others new to the varsity are settling into their expanded roles.

Head coach Frank Consiglio certainly appreciates all of that offense. But he was less than thrilled by his team’s erratic baserunning and bullpen work in Wednesday’s triumph, Evanston’s sixth win in the past seven games.

The Wildkits will play a Central Suburban League crossover game on Thursday at Niles West, weather permitting.

“There weren’t many bright spots for us today,” Consiglio said. “It wasn’t winning baseball because we didn’t find a way to play to our strengths. But we stayed with it, and we battled.

“Today the way we ran the bases was a huge disadvantage for us. So how did we win it? We did defend well, and we did hit the ball in spots. That’s how we won today.”

Evanston’s running game was over the top in the wrong way Wednesday. Consiglio always prefers his teams to be aggressive on the basepaths, but against Andrew the Kits had three runners cut down trying to take extra bases, another was picked off, and one veteran even fell victim to the ancient “hidden ball” trick at second base to foil a possible big inning.

But the coach’s most immediate concern at this stage of the season might be the ETHS bullpen. Backing up starter Henry Rouch, who left the game with a 5-2 lead, relievers Alex Van Durmen and Noah Cryns allowed the Thunderbolts to rally and force a 5-5 tie in the top of the 6th.

Van Durmen plunked Andrew’s No. 9 hitter, Caden Kendall, to start the 6th inning outburst. He then allowed a double by Nolan Kendall, retired the next two batters on hard-hit line drives and was replaced by the hard-throwing Cryns.

The senior right-hander, however, couldn’t locate home plate. He uncorked two wild pitches that allowed both runners to score, was touched for a walk and a couple of hits before finally slipping a called third strike past Robby Pursel to put out the fire.

Cryns also walked two batters in the 7th but managed to escape unscathed. Left fielder Avan Teuer made a sliding catch of a popup in foul territory to end the game with the potential tying run in scoring position.

In the Evanston 6th, sophomore catcher Harrison Boes lined a two-out, two-strike pitch to left for a single and Vega tripled deep into the right field corner against Andrew southpaw Doug Moss. Grimm delivered a three-bagger over the center fielder’s head for an insurance run.

Those at-bats by Boes and Vega did bring a smile to Consiglio’s face.

“The most impressive part of that inning was those two at-bats by our No. 9 (Boes) and No. 1 (Vega) hitters,” said the coach. “The first two guys went out quick, and how often do you usually see the third guy go down pretty quick, too? But Boes takes a good two-strike approach, gets a hit and spins the lineup back up to the top.

“And then Eron says, OK, I’m not going to try to do too much with this pitch, I’ll just go to the opposite field to beat this guy. And that’s just what he did.”

The lack of close games so far has stalled Consiglio’s search for a bullpen closer. Unlike most high school coaches, Consiglio usually starts the season with an active search for the most reliable hurler he can find for high-leverage situations at the end of contests.

Cryns could be the one to fill that spot. Or it might be that someone else will emerge and rise to the occasion when the heat is on.

“Right now I have a lot of confidence in our top three guys (starters Vega, Grimm, Rouch) and McHenry Mason has done a good job every time I’ve put him in a game,” Consiglio noted. “But the rest of the bullpen has been hot and cold, and you saw cold today.

“When Noah’s on, he’s on. Having a good closer really shortens the game because in high school they can go more than one inning. If you can find a guy who can pitch the last two innings, that’s really an advantage. It’s not always there, but the talent is here for us to have that kind of guy. It’s a challenge for someone like Noah because he’s also a position player, so you have to adjust and switch gears once it’s time to pitch.

“He just needs a chance to do it more often. I’m confident that he can do it.”