Baseball: Glenbard South Beats Romeoville 12-9

After losing 6-5 Friday to Providence, the top ball club in Illinois, Romeoville, could not match the effort hours later during a 12-9 home loss to Glenbard South. 

Romeoville head coach Tony Smith said his team played a sloppy game, committing four errors and scratching three hits in five innings.

 “We needed to be better in all aspects,” Smith said. “We had only three hits all the way up to the last two innings. We didn’t throw strikes. We didn’t play catch and we didn’t put the ball into play. I don’t know how you go from Friday losing 6-5 to the No. 1 team Providence in the state and come back less than 24 hours with this effort.”

The first game of a double header, the Raiders (17-9) began with four first inning hits and were aided on an error by Romeoville junior second baseman Anthony Gladstone to build a 3-0 lead. The Spartans answered with RBI fielder’s choices by senior catcher Matt Gillis, junior first baseman Matt Venn and a two-run single by senior center fielder Brian Weber for a 4-3 edge.

“We swung our bats really well in the first inning,” Smith said. “(Glenbard South’s Aaron Beese) walked a couple of our guys and we took advantage of it.”

In the second, Romeoville senior pitcher James Mikyska was lifted for senior pitcher Casey Moll. Moll walked five batters while senior shortstop Kyle Lenihan, junior third baseman Vidal Gonzalez and junior left fielder Frank Rooks committed errors for the Raiders to score five and gain a 8-4 lead.

Lenihan and Gillis then had RBI singles in the bottom half for an 8-6 contest.

Glenbard South scored twice in the third on a two-run single by shortstop Zach Bava, Beese added a run scoring double in the fourth and left fielder Ryan Schlegel slapped an RBI single in the fifth to complete the Raiders offensive attack.

The fourth had the bags loaded for Romeoville, though Beese struck Venn out looking to end the threat.

For the Spartans, Moll had an RBI single in the sixth while senior infielder Jordan Pemble bombed a two-run homer in the seventh for the 12-9 total.

In other action, the Spartans junior varsity squad beat Glenbard South 5-0 in the second game of the doubleheader.

Romeoville (10-14) will travel to face Plainfield North 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Spartans are seeded to play at Waubonsie Valley May 23 for regionals.