Lake Bluff 11A Baseball Closes Perfect Season With Tourney Title

Perfect.

Lake Bluff’s 11-year-old “A” travel baseball team finished its season the way it started – with a win.

They toppled Evanston, 9-3, to finish 15-0 overall and capture the Lake Shore Feeder Baseball League championship Sunday at Community Park West in Glenview. Lake Bluff defeated Northbrook (15-3) and Lake Forest (4-1) to reach the tourney finals.

The trail of success actually leads off the playing field and into the classroom.

“They’re just one age group that just seems to be really into playing baseball,” coach Brad Naughton said. “Matter of fact, most of the team were in the same classroom last year. They know each other really well. I think they tend to play well together, because they know each other.”

Evanston jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the third inning, but Lake Bluff scored in the last three frames to win going away. Back-to-back doubles from Drew Golde and Tyler Esplin tied the game at 3-3 in the fourth. Lake Bluff took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth, and then scored five times in the sixth to seal the victory.

Naughton said it’s a dedicated group of kids who love to play the game and a supportive group of parents who frequently take the Lake Bluff team to batting practice, even in the winter, at Bat Speed in Gurnee.

This is the first year Lake Bluff has been in the LSFBL, but it’s been a good experience for the kids.

“It’s a feeder league, that was important to us,” Naughton said. “The concept of this league is that the teams are supposed to be community-based, rather than kids kind of coming in from different communities or becoming purely travel.”

Lake Bluff has a team separate from Lake Forest in the league, though both feed into .

The team hit the road during the season to compete in tournaments, which helped to develop chemistry and team traditions. They also had good stories to share.

A few of the kids agreed their favorite moment of the year was a catch made by center fielder Drew Golde.

“In the Memorial Day tournament, he made a diving catch and everyone said it would be the best play of the year,” said Alex Moss, who tries to model his game after Dustin Pedroia. “Then in the Fourth of July tournament, he robbed a home run running to the wall.”

“He smashes his head on the wall and puts his glove out and he caught it,” added catcher Griffing Strang. “He made the most amazing catches.”

This age group has played together for three years with mostly the same kids, and the title this year was their first.

“Last year we came close and ended up losing by two to Deerfield,” Moss said. “It was nice to come back and win it once.”

Lake Bluff's roster included: Cade Bailey, Tyler Esplin, Alex Moss, Will Woidat, Connor Polender, Lowell Weil, Brian Silver, JR Naughton, Drew Golde, Peter Jannotta, Matt Rozsypal, and Griffin Strang. Coaches were: Brad Naughton, Corey Golde, Danny Esplin, and Jim Rozsypal.