Nightmare Inning Ends Evanston's Dream Season

Four walks.

Two fly balls that should have been caught.

One actual error.

One hit batter.

It all added up to a 9-run 4th inning for a gritty New Trier team and sent Evanston to a premature exit from the Illinois High School Association state baseball tournament series Saturday in front of a standing-room-only crowd at ETHS Stadium.

A Wildkit team with designs on the first Final Four appearance in program history suffered its worst inning in an otherwise record-setting season and bowed out with an 11-0 slaughter rule loss to the Trevians in the Class 4A sectional championship game.

Already trailing 2-0, the wheels came completely off for the Kits in the 4th as Evanston ended with a 31-8 record. New Trier, which lost to ETHS twice during the regular season, advanced to the super-sectional set for Monday in Schaumburg with a 28-7 mark.

“Give New Trier a ton of credit. But I felt like they didn’t even hit the ball hard to score those 11 runs,” said a dejected Evanston head coach, Frank Consiglio. “They worked counts and they put the ball in play. They did what they had to do.

“Obviously, this isn’t us. To go out with an inning like this is really frustrating. But good teams don’t let you get away with mistakes, and New Trier is a good team. The bottom line is if you’re not throwing strike one, you’re constantly in deep counts and that can make a good team even better. We had to work too hard out there.”

Starting pitcher Hank Liss issued a career-high 5 walks and also hit a batter while absorbing the loss. He lost his location in that nightmarish 4th inning, issuing consecutive walks to force in a run, and also hitting a batter to plate another run before he was yanked in favor of Mason Denlow.

Denlow couldn’t deliver the last couple of outs until the Trevians had piled up 3 additional runs and put the 10-run slaughter rule into effect. They sent 13 batters to the plate during that frame.

“Our pitchers didn’t pound the (strike) zone today,” said senior catcher Brandon Brokowski, who along with Liss and junior infielder Charlie Kalil was selected to the all-Central Suburban League South division team this spring for ETHS. “And we couldn’t make some plays out there, either. It wasn’t a lack of effort. Everyone tried super hard in such a huge game.

“It was tough to take.”

“I think Hank tried to be TOO good today,” said Consiglio. “He’s at his best when he’s getting contact early in the count. That just wasn’t him today.

“Hank Liss is one of the greatest pitchers ever to play at Evanston and what happened today doesn’t take away from that. The toughest part for all of them is for it to end in this fashion, especially as hard as they worked.”

New Trier touched Liss for a 2-out run in the 2nd thanks to an opposite field single by James Novakovic, a walk and Evan Olesker’s ground ball single through the left side.

In the 3rd, leadoff hitter Aidan Nolan battled Liss in a 10-pitch at-bat, eventually reaching on a high hop single over the mound. He came around to score on a fielder’s choice and Brenden Stressler’s sacrifice fly.

Evanston had opportunities to break through early against New Trier junior left-hander Max Kaplan. Kaplan, who didn’t face the Kits during the regular season, allowed a leadoff single to Eron Vega in the 1st but he was left stranded at second base.

The home team loaded the bases in the 2nd as Jared Lortie singled, James O’Connor walked with one out, and Braden Grimm stroked a single to right. But Kaplan struck out Dylan Denlow --- one of just two strikeouts he recorded in his 5-inning mound stint --- and Vega bounced out to second to kill the rally.

From there, Kaplan faced just one batter above the minimum to earn the victory.

Evanston set a single season program record with 31 wins but the flat ending in postseason play will likely linger longer for the 16 seniors who were anticipating a trip to the IHSA state finals next weekend in Joliet.

“It is what it is. We’ll just have to get over it,” sighed Lortie. “It really sucks to lose to New Trier in my last game here. But it was fun playing here in our last game.”

“That was brutal. It’s so tough to take, because I’ve been playing with the older guys since I was 10 or 11 years old,” added Kalil. “It’s not a satisfying way to end the best season in Evanston history.”

“I think you have to win a sectional to be considered the best team ever,” Consiglio pointed out. “But this is such a prideful group, such a talented group, such a hard-working group of guys. That’s why this is so hard, to see them go down like that.

“They did things nobody else ever did at Evanston and had the best regular season ever. Absolutely, this is a team that will be remembered.”