Inexperience Shows In 8-5 Loss That Snaps Win String

Evanston’s youth finally showed itself on the baseball diamond Thursday.

The result was an 8-5 loss to New Trier and the end of an 8-game winning streak.

Poised to score a season sweep of their rivals, the Wildkits instead settled for a split after last Tuesday’s 2-1 triumph and suffered their first Central Suburban League defeat. New Trier (6-9 overall) scored 3 times in the first inning against sophomore pitcher Eron Vega and kept adding on runs --- some of them unearned --- while dropping ETHS to 11-3 overall.

Head coach Frank Consiglio could take some consolation from the fact that a starting unit consisting mostly of juniors and sophomores tried to “do too much” in the rivalry showdown. But some sloppy play (3 errors, 3 wild pitches, 2 passed balls) and mental errors saw the home team playing less than championship calibre baseball for one of the few times this spring.

“Early on in the game, I saw a lot of nerves, and I thought we put too much pressure on ourselves instead of playing within ourselves,” said the Evanston coach. “Our inexperience really showed today. We showed an inability to have a bounce-back mentality when things didn’t go right --- we didn’t do a good job in that area --- and we weren’t focused on the little things like we usually are. We focused too much on the big picture.

“We have to understand that in situations like this, where we were playing a rare home game and in front of a big crowd, emotions don’t win the game. We had to work around a lot of mental mistakes and a lack of communication in the infield and that hasn’t happened to us all year. I’m disappointed, because that’s not championship baseball.”

New Trier pushed across 3 runs against Vega to shove the home team into a 3-0 hole, aided by a wild pitch and a passed ball that produced 2 of those runs. Louis Florida added a solo home run off Vega in the 3rd, a drive that glanced off the top of the fence and into the bullpen in right center to boost the Trevian lead to 4-0.

New Trier also solved the Evanston bullpen for 4 more runs, only one of which was earned.

Consiglio won’t be reluctant to run Vega back out there for another start as soon as his turn comes up in the rotation, though.

“Experience is the best teacher in any walk of life. Sometimes you have to experience some failure to help you figure things out,” he said. “Eron is a really talented guy and I thought he showed some nerves today. We wanted to put him out there in a big spot, but he hasn’t been able to get many innings in before today.

“The nerves were definitely there at the start, but he was better in the second and third innings. He’s going to be a really good pitcher for us and I know he’ll be much better in his next start.”

The Wildkit offense mounted a comeback against Trevian right-hander Oliver Barkal in the bottom of the 3rd. Thomas Ferguson’s single, a double by Hank Liss, a throwing error and a wild pitch cut the deficit to 4-2. Heath Ballard’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded plated another run before Barkal retired pinch-hitter Jared Lortie on a grounder to second.

That was as close as the Wildkits got. Liss contributed another sacrifice fly in the 4th and Alex Vasquez blasted a solo home run, his first of the season, to the left of the center field scoreboard in the 5th.

But New Trier pitchers Barkal, Trevor Byrnes and Charlie Hahn teamed up to retire 9 of the next 10 hitters following the home run by Vasquez to close out the win.