LAKE FOREST, Ill.–Just a day after scoring 18 runs on the road, it was expected that on Tuesday night, the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team would once again demolish the one-win Zion Benton Zee-Bees. However, that was not the case. Fueled by their embarrassing loss Monday night, the Zee-Bees came out swinging and seemed to stick around for the entirety of the game. Right when you thought that the Scouts were going to blow the game open, Zion-Benton closed the gap. In the end, the Zee-Bees final push for extra innings just wasn’t enough as Lake Forest managed to sneak by, racking up their fifth straight win.
In and effort to give their pitching some padding, Zion-Benton was the first to get on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning. With a man on second and one out, Andrew Green picked up an RBI on a single to center field. Preventing any further damage, starting pitcher Breck Nowik retired the next two batters getting out of the first with only one run allowed.
It wasn’t until the second inning when the Lake Forest Scouts managed to answer Zion-Benton’s lone run in the first. Nowik started the Scouts’ rally with a single, then Michael Vallone drew a two-out walk. With two runners on the base paths and two outs, Brady Christoph had one of the most clutch at-bats of the evening. Down 0-1 in the count, Christoph ripped a line drive double to left field allowing both runners to score and giving Lake Forest their first lead of the night. Lake Forest wasn’t done just yet. Colton Pfeifer’s single to right field allowed Christoph to come home extending the lead to two. Lake Forest couldn’t even enjoy that lead for an inning as the Zee-Bees came right back.
‘Avoidable’ would be the perfect word to summarize the top of the third. The Zee Bee’s first batter of the inning, Ryan Anderson, managed to make it safely to first on a rare error from shortstop Caleb Durbin. Nowik retired the next two batters, but ran into trouble when Andrew Green stepped up to the plate. Despite falling down in the count 0-2, Green ripped a double to right field scoring Anderson. In Zion-Benton’s next at-bat, Durbin committed another error allowing Green to come around and score, knotting the game up at three. What was thought to be a blowout was all of a sudden was a tight game.
Fortunately, the Scouts had an impressive answer of their own in the bottom of the third. After Drew Golde reached on an error and Andrew Gough singled, Nowik stepped up to the plate looking to give the Scouts their lead back. Instead of scoring both runners on a single or double, Nowik did something the team hasn’t seen all year–he cleared the fence at Varsity Field. Nowik launched a home run to left field on a 1-2 count giving the Scouts a sudden three-run boost. Nowik followed his impressive hit with a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th carrying the Scouts momentum into the bottom of the 4th.
With a man on and one out, Caleb Durbin looked to redeem himself after making two costly errors in the second. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Durbin ripped a single to right field easily scoring Brady Christoph from third. Zee-Bees starting pitcher Andrew Green managed to retire the next two Scouts batters, but found himself in trouble with Zion-Benton down by four runs.
From the 4th inning on, the Scouts’ bats went ice cold and didn’t have a single base runner for the rest of the game. All of the attention was turned to the defense. In the top of the sixth–with JR Naughton on the bump–the Zee-Bees had runners in scoring position after a single and a walk. Naughton, however, shut down their chances after striking out Franklin Henry and forcing Cameron Brewer to ground out.
Kyle Wix came in to close things out in the top of the seventh, but did allow a few hits before the game came to a close. Kobe Koessner made it around the base paths after hitting a double and scoring on an RBI single, then Collin Shiade scored on a sacrifice fly. The Zee-Bees minor comeback fell short as Wix recorded the Scouts final out sealing the 7-5 victory.
This game was nothing more than just a win. The defense was good–not great–but good enough against a team that doesn’t score that often, and the offense played decent against the Zee-Bees pitching. Breck Nowik had a solid day with the Scouts first home run of the season and a solid pitching outing. The Scouts are continuing to find ways to win and look to stay hot tomorrow night as they close out the series in Zion-Benton. Stay tuned to The Forest Scout for the latest on the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team.
