Mitter's Walk Off in Extra Innings Thrust GBN Forward in the Playoffs

When Coach Dom Savino made his decision to go with his top pitcher, Michael Oh, for this first round game in the IHSA 4A Baseball Playoffs, he knew the other team’s record means nothing during the playoffs. All teams are beginning fresh with no record and you can’t take any team for granted. Coming into this game, GBN was the number one seeded team and was granted a bye while the Palatine Pirates had to play a play in game beat Hersey on Memorial Day to face GBN.

Early in the game, Oh struggled a bit due to some weakness he had from a mild flu bug he came down with earlier that day. Palatine jumped out ahead putting two runs across with solid hitting. But, GBN’s middle infield defense tandem, junior Kyle Mitter and senior Sage Bruhl, were able to turn a double 6-4-3 double play and help limit the damage. GBN scored in their half of the first after Brice Call reached on a single and Bruhl bunted to reach also. Then, David Burnside came up and moved the runners over. Tedeschi sacrificed Call in and Bruhl moved to third on the deep fly ball to right. Danny Ahern struck out stranding Bruhl at third to end the inning.

The defense was superb on both sides and the score remained Palatine 2-1 going into the fourth inning when David Burnside blasted a two run homer to put the Spartans ahead 3-2. Palatine came back and scored on a triple to right that was misplayed by the Spartan defense and ended up sending the Palatine hitter home after an over throw at third on the relay. The game stayed tied the rest of the way, though GBN had two opportunities in the sixth and seventh to score the winning run.

Palatine and GBN went head to head the whole way through this game until the bottom of the ninth when Mitch Schermerhorn led off with a double to left and Hikaru Ozone was walked intentionally. Brandon Labunski bunted and reached on a single to load the bases bringing shortstop, Kyle Mitter, to the plate with nobody out. Mitter said, “I knew all I had to do was hit the ball hard because the infield was in and the pitcher had to come to me.” Mitter took the count to 3-2 before fouling off 3 straight pitches. Then he finally got a ball he could drive to right to bring Schermerhorn home and take the victory 4-3.

Michael Oh was masterful in this game throwing 75% strikes through the nine innings and was pleased with his performance. Oh commented on his game, “I was little nervous and didn’t feel well at the beginning of the game. But I knew if I kept the ball down my defense would do the rest.”

GBN faces Stevenson on Saturday, May 30th at Palatine High School. Game time is 10 a.m.