Baseball: Offensive Assault Earns GBN First Sectional Title Since '74

With graduation a day away, many of Glenbrook North’s seniors gave themselves an early graduation present: a sectional title.

The Spartans pounded the ball all day against top-seeded Leyden in a resounding 15-6 win in the final of the Glenbrook South Sectional Saturday. It’s the program’s first sectional title since 1974 and advances them to Monday’s Supersectional at Road Ranger Stadium in Rockford.

The Eagles (28-6) took the lead with a run in the first inning after Spartans’ starting pitcher Alex Hermeling walked the first two batters he faced. Then GBN (33-3) came up in the top of the second and started a hit parade that would continue for the rest of the game.

Senior left fielder Jack Day singled to lead off the second. Coach Dominic Savino said Day’s at-bat set the tone for the day.

“I thought that it kind of started with Jack Day’s at-bat where he fouled off all those pitches and then ended up singling,” Savino said.

GBN scored seven in the second with hits coming from Brad Ruchman, Charlie Apfelbach, Sean Thomas and Day again. Day’s two hits in the second were the start of a 4-4 day for him.

“I thought Jack Day had an outstanding day today with the way he hit,” Savino said. “He had two different at-bats where he just battled his butt off and found a way to get it done. That was kind of our approach the whole day, trying to grind it out.”

“I just had an aggressive approach today,” Day said. “Trying to stay inside the baseball. Not trying to do too much. Not trying to hit a home run. Just trying to get singles or doubles. It worked out for me.”

A Brett Synek triple in the third drove in Ruchman and Apfelbach. The next batter, Chad Bruce, singled to score Synek and Bruce later came around to score as well. The Spartans took an 11-1 lead and chased Leyden starting pitcher Eric Palmer from the game.

Leyden was able to get three off Hermeling in the bottom of the third, but the Spartans answered with three more in the top of the fourth. The highlight of the inning was Bruce’s two-RBI double off the left field wall.

Hermeling settled down and left with a 14-5 lead after the fifth. He finished with ten strikeouts.

Ryan Slawin hit a home run in the top of the seventh over the big right field wall and Jason Pomeroy pitched the last two innings to close out the game.

Day wasn’t the only offensive star for GBN. Synek, Bruce and Slawin each had three hits and Bruce and Thomas each had three RBI.

“I don’t think we were expecting a 15 spot, but it was awesome to see,” Day said.

“We woke up early and took some batting practice,” Slawin said. “Everyone was looking really good. We just worked really hard in practice this week. We were just aggressive at the plate, ripping fastballs.”

Winning the program’s first sectional since 1974 is obviously a major accomplishment. It’s something not lost on the players.

“It’s huge,” Slawin said. “Just getting the GBN baseball program back on track right now, getting a good name for us. We got a lot of fans out here today. It was really good to see every coming out and rooting us on. That definitely had a big factor in the game.”

The last two GBN teams to win sectional also won state, in ’66 and ’74, and this team believes they can do the same.