Loyola Defeats Gilman in High-Scoring Affair

On Wednesday, the Loyola Dons defended their home turf by defeating the Gilman Greyhounds 15-13.

The Greyhounds started off fast, jumping out to a 12-3 lead, but Dons head coach Jim Crowley encouraged his team to keep battling in what he thought would be a high-scoring game.

“Well, we told the guys early, once Gilman came out and scored some runs early, looking at the way the wind was blowing and the way both teams have been battling all year up and down with pitching, I said this might have to be a 17-16 win for Loyola, so let’s not give up,” Crowley said. “I thought if we could keep it somewhat close—although 12-3 isn’t exactly where we wanted it—if we could stay in it and get to AJ, our senior leader and closer, that we would be in good shape.”

The Dons’ senior leader is AJ Llardo. Llardo hit the game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Dons the 15-13 lead. He then took the mound and pitched two scoreless innings to close the game, including striking out the side in the sixth.

“That felt great, to be able to rally the guys and get us ahead there,” Llardo said. “We needed to win this game and it felt really good to get that win. I’m really proud of the team with how they stayed in it the whole game.”

In the other dugout, Gilman head coach Larry Sheets was frustrated after watching his team blow a 12-3 lead in a game the Greyhounds desperately needed in order to avoid falling too far out of playoff contention.

“It’s very disappointing,” Sheets said. “It’s a game we felt like we needed to win, and a game we felt like we should have won. To walk away with a 15-13 loss is tough.”

Sheets discussed what he felt went wrong as his team squandered a nine-run lead.

“You got to make plays when you have the opportunity,” Sheets said. “You can’t put extra base runners on base. The grand slam was a fly ball to center field. It was just a fly ball that blows out of the ballpark. That makes it difficult. The ball was blowing all over the place out there.”

Crowley believes this win could propel his Dons into the playoff discussion.

“We were 2-7 coming into the game in the league,” Crowley said. "I knew if we could get to 4 or 5 wins that we would have a shot at getting a least into playoff contention.”

Llardo hopes his grand slam will be the spark that pushes the Dons toward their ultimate goal of taking home a title.

“This is a huge gain of momentum for us,” Llardo said. “We can use this game to carry into our next games and keep winning. We have the talent here to win a championship. We can do it.”