Wednesday evening, the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team was searching for a series sweep over the Zion-Benton Zee-Bees. Tuesday night, the game was a little closer than the Scouts would’ve liked it to be with the final margin only being two. In the final game, however, Lake Forest made sure to build a solid lead and never look back. Following a brief weather delay, the Scouts poured hits on the Zee-Bee defense, then after the game was called for the evening, Lake Forest picked up exactly where they left off on Thursday, scoring 14 runs in four innings.
Only four pitches into the game, the Scouts had a runner in scoring position. Caleb Durbin drilled a triple to right field, then easily scored on a wild pitch in the teams next at bat. After Colton Pfeifer singled and stole second, Drew Golde was the first Scout to pick up an RBI on a ball that got passed the shortstop and third basemen and into left field. With a 2-0 lead and two men in scoring position, Peter Turelli scored both runners on yet another single to left field. To top things off before the weather delay pushed things to Thursday, Colin McDonnell picked up Lake Forest’s 7th hit of the game and 5th run of the night on a base hit to right field. When the game resumed the following day, the Scouts came out with the same intention: to run away with the contest as soon as they could. With a runner on third, Sam Sheffield’s RBI groundout extended the Scouts lead to six. Then, in his second plate appearance on the inning, Caleb Durbin picked up right where he left off. He hit his second triple of the game, easily scoring McDonnell, then scored on an error made by the Zion-Benton second basemen. Everyone in the starting lineup got a chance to hit in the top of the first as the Scouts piled on eight runs.
The Zee-Bees took a run back in the bottom of the first, but that was the least of the Scouts worries. The Scouts blew the game out of reach in the top of the third. After starting the inning off with an error, Michael Vallone doubled on a line drive to left field scoring Peter Turelli. Just two at-bats later, Zion-Benton committed another error allowing Vallone to score from third. It seemed like everything the Scouts hit in the inning resulted in a batter reaching. Now up nine, Durbin got back in the action with a 2 RBI single to right field. Lake Forest would tack on one more run in the inning after Matt Hill picked up an RBI of his own on a ground out. In the span of that one inning, the Scouts had not only hit around the order again, but had four hits and reached on three errors.
Lake Forest scored one more run in the top of 4th inning after Will Woidat’s single scored Sam Sheffield as the Scouts went on to slaughter Zion-Benton in their final meeting of the season 14-1.
You can now make that six straight for the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team. This was the second game of the series that was dominated by offense. If no slotter rule was implemented, who knows how many runs the Scouts would have scored. Big innings in the 1st and 3rd easily put away the Zee-Bee’s who now drop to a disappointing 3-17 on the season. Caleb Durbin was by far last night’s player of the game. He went 3-3 at the plate including two triple’s. Connor Morrison also did a fine job on the hill. In the three innings he pitched, he only allowed two hits and struck out five batters. Most importantly, Lake Forest is suddenly two wins away from being back at .500. Despite a disappointing start, they are now hunting down Warren and Lake Zurich for the 4th spot in the conference. The Scouts look to stay hot Friday night against Glenbrook North, then return home for a double header against Whitney Young and Jones Academy on Saturday. Stay tuned to The Forest Scout for the latest on the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team.
