One young man in the crowd couldn’t resist bragging to his fellow Evanston Baseball/Softball Association team members about securing the autograph of Evanston baseball star Hank Liss.
His hero worship was understandable because Liss is one of the best players in the state of Illinois. But that youngster might have also considered sticking around to get John Meier’s signature, too.
The Glenbrook South pitcher quieted Evanston’s bats with a 2-hit performance Thursday and snapped Evanston’s 10-game winning string, leading the Titans to a 5-0 Central Suburban League South division victory and spoiling EBSA Day at the ETHS Stadium.
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Meier struck out 6 and yielded only a pair of singles, by James O’Connor in the 2nd inning and Sam Sheikh in the 6th, and reliever Joaquin Williams set down the side in order in the 7th as Evanston fell to 18-3 on the year and 6-1 in league play.
Meier’s effort allowed the Titans (10-6-1) to earn a split of the home and home series after bowing to ETHS 10-8 on Wednesday.
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The Wildkits smashed 15 hits in that victory but couldn’t solve the GBS junior hurler 24 hours later. He retired 11 batters in a row during one stretch, pushing the reset button after allowing two of the first three batters he faced in the game --- Sheikh via hit by a pitch and Brandon Brokowski with a walk --- to reach base.
“Their pitcher is a nice player,” praised Evanston head coach Frank Consiglio. “He had a good game plan and he executed it well. He did a good job of working the edges (of the plate) --- he was soft away, hard away, and we hit way too many fly balls today because of that. He made us reach for all of those pitches.
“This was about as ugly as it gets for us, because we were dominated in every area today. There was nothing we did well. We haven’t really had the opportunity to see how this team will bounce back from a loss yet, and now we’ll see. The next couple of days will tell me more than I’ve learned all season about these guys.”
South solved Evanston starter Eron Vega for four straight hits as part of a 3-run uprising in the 2nd inning and that was more than enough offense with Meier in control. The Titans tacked on unearned runs in the 4th and 5th to build their advantage.
Evanston senior Derek Llanes tossed two and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief for the losers, who play Saturday at Vernon Hills.
