There probably haven’t been many games in the long history of Evanston’s baseball program where the Wildkits have won a game in which they committed six errors as a team.
But there’s something to be said for winning ugly.
Glenbrook North was the team that made the last mistake in the opener of a three-game Central Suburban League South division series Monday at ETHS, as the Wildkits scored a walk-off 4-3 win thanks to a two-out, two-strike passed ball in the bottom of the seventh inning.
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ETHS senior Clay Lemmon scampered home from third base with the winning run when a 1-2 pitch squirted out of the glove of GBN catcher Jake Semmelhack and rolled far enough away to decide the outcome. The victory lifted the Kits to 2-5 in division play and evened their overall record at 10-10 on the year.
The Spartans, now 10-11 overall and 3-4 in the CSL South, will host a rematch between the two squads on Tuesday, with the series concluding back at Evanston on Thursday.
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Glenbrook North opened the division season by beating New Trier in two out of three games, but couldn’t capitalize on Evanston’s six errors --- half of which came from pitchers Elliot Paul and Holden Bellis on bad throws. And three Spartan pitchers combined to issue 10 walks before darkness fell and Lemmon scored the winning run.
Evanston’s game-winning rally began with two outs in the seventh when Lemmon, the designated hitter, earned a five-pitch walk from GBN reliever Dylan Hirsch. He advanced to third when Cole Vander Velde lined a single to right.
“I just tried to get on base and then pass the torch to the next guy, and Cole got a really big hit for us and got me over,” Lemmon said. “Coach Consiglio (head coach Frank) told me I had to get an extended lead off third and be ready to jump on every advantage (wild pitch or passed ball) they gave us.
“I knew their pitchers were having a hard time finding the (strike) zone and I knew he’d try to do too much. I needed to be smart and I needed to be aggressive out there. It might not have been pretty, but it still counts (as a win). We had a lot of energy going for us in the dugout there at the end and we want to ride that kind of energy as much as we can. You can beat other teams just by putting the pressure on them.”
“We’ve had a lot of one run losses (seven) this year, so it was nice to flip the switch like that today. It can really beat you down when you keep losing those one-run games,” Consiglio said. “I thought we competed well and I think Glenbrook North will be right up there (near the top) in the division this year.
“At the end of the day, the energy we had is a credit to the leadership in the dugout from guys like (seniors) Otis Randhava and Nate Cvetas. The coaches can’t do that, only the players can, and I’m very happy with what I’ve seen. It’s a long season and we just have to keep battling.
“Our defense wasn’t pretty today. It’s a matter of tightening up every aspect of the game for us, and once that occurs, the kids will have more confidence and more fun. They’ve got it in them to do that, and we as coaches have to pull that out of them.”
The Kits added a fifth sophomore --- infielder Ryan Rappoport --- to the varsity mix on Monday and Rappoport walked twice, scored a run and handled five of six chances on defense, committing one (harmless) error.
Another soph, Elliot Paul, continued to show improvement on the mound but allowed two unearned runs in the second inning and another in the fourth on Semmelhack’s RBI single with two outs.
Reliever Holden Bellis navigated plenty of traffic on the basepaths after that but earned his first win of the season in walk-off fashion. The senior southpaw survived a walk and his own throwing error to start the GBN seventh because he mowed down the 7-8-9 hitters in the Spartan lineup to keep the visitors off the scoreboard.
In the ETHS fifth, soph Tate Schroeder started the hosts off with a leadoff single that chased GBN starting pitcher Haper Williams and brought on replacement Danny Cosentino. Aaron Shalin’s RBI single was wrapped around walks to Rappoport and Owen Vander Velde, loading the bases, and Andy Mertz also walked on a 3-2 pitch to force across the second run.
Ethan Carpenter followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the contest at 3-all. The Kits, however, couldn’t do any more damage as Consentino retired two of the next three batters he faced.
