After picking up their best win of the season, the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team was in position to win their first series of the year against NSC foe, the Lake Zurich Bears. With the offense finally clicking and the defense limiting their mistakes, the Scouts were playing their best baseball of the season. Connor Morrison was given the start in what shaped out to be an intense finale between the two teams. The Bears and Scouts went back in fourth in the early stages, but Lake Forest had the last laugh in the fifth inning.
Lake Zurich didn’t waste much time getting on the board. Austin Matuszewski singled on the first pitch of the game to Caleb Durbin, who managed to stop the ball, but couldn’t get it in time to first. Two at-bats later, now with Matuszewski at second, Tyler Snep singled to center granting the Bears the early lead. Two innings later, Lake Zurich extended their one-run lead. With two down in the top of the third and Matuszewski back at second, Josh Anderson singled to JR Naughton in left field. Naughton’s throw to the plate looked to be on time, but the ball took a bad bounce hitting the runner in the elbow allowing him to easily score. Down two, Lake Forest came back swinging in the bottom of the third.
With one out, Naughton got things going with a single to left. Shortly after, Caleb Durbin picked up his first hit of the night on a base hit to left. This setup Will Davis with a chance to pick up his 4th RBI in six games. On a 2-0 count, Davis dribbled a grounder between the shortstop and second basemen allowing Naughton to come all the way home. Then with two down and Durbin at third, Andrew Gough hit a routine ground ball to shortstop, however, Michael Chialdikas, who has committed a handful of errors this series, let the ball get by him allowing Durbin to easily score. With the game tied, tensions between the two sides only grew as they inched toward the final stages of the contest.
Things started getting intense in the top of the fifth. When Anthony Mangano drew a two-out walk, and the Bears dugout got loud. In the next at-bat, Lake Zurich players were yelling at Morrison trying to throw him off. One pitch in, he allowed the runner to advance to second on a balk. With so much going on down 3-1 in the count, Morrison stayed composed and focused on his job: to end the inning. On a full count, batter Tyler Snep grounded out to Breck Nowik who shot down Lake Zurich’s momentum. Of course, this brought an adrenaline rush to the Scouts who made the Bears pay for their antics in the bottom half of the inning.
Caleb Durbin got the Scouts roaring on a single to left with no outs, which brought Will Davis to the plate. On a 1-2 count, Davis took an aggressive approach and drilled a double over the left fielder’s head putting runners on second and third with no outs. Following a walk to load up the bases, Andrew Gough shot a single right past the pitcher and into center field scoring two runners. Nowik then put the finishing touches on with a line drive single to center extending the Scouts lead to 5-2.
Relief pitcher Jackson Thomas shut down the Bears in the top of the sixth, then Will Woidat ended Lake Zurich’s chances in the final inning of the game. Lake Forest went on to win their first series of the season against a very talented Bears team.
Once again, this was another quality team win. Connor Morrison had a phenomenal outing, and when tensions were at their highest, Lake Forest stayed composed, stuck to their game, and made Lake Zurich pay for it. The Scouts batting average continues to climb, now at .211. Caleb Durbin, Andrew Gough, and once again Will Davis were impressive at the plate, all with two hits. Lake Forest also didn’t allow a single fielding error the whole series. This three game set will hopefully be the turning point in what opened up as a disappointing start for the Scouts. If the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team plays like this every game, expect them to begin climbing to the top of the North Suburban conference. Come support the red hot Scouts Saturday afternoon at West Campus against Prospect.
