MUNDELEIN, Ill.– If there is one thing that rarely happens to the Mundelein Mustangs, it is losing a series. They have only lost one this year and it was at the hands of the talented Warren Blue Devils. Tuesday evening on the road, the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team had a chance to do just that after a surprising win Monday night against Arkansas commit Steve Sanchez. Breck Nowik, who has been lights out on the mound in his most recent games, was given the start as Lake Forest looked to avoid losing their first game since April 23, and stun Mundelein again.
The Scouts made their presence known immediately in the top of the first. Caleb Durbin drilled a triple to third, then scored on the following at-bat on a JR Naughton ground out. Lake Forest didn’t stop there. With two outs, Andrew Gough gave the Scouts some life on a single to right field. After advancing to second, Gough came around and scored when Breck Nowik sent a line drive base hit to center field. With a 2-0 advantage, Lake Forest looked to preserve their lead, but the Mustangs had other plans.
After Nowik registered two quick outs, the Mustangs put together a strong two-out rally. After a walk and a single put runners in scoring position, Ben Holly picked up Mundelein’s first RBI of the night after he reached safely on an error committed by the Scouts third basemen. The damage did not end there. Still an out away from ending the inning, Mason Schaller’s infield single allowed Sanchez to come home to tie the game. Before the dreadful inning was over, the Mustangss tacked on one more run on an error by Breck Nowik, which gave them the lead. The Scouts bats were silenced for a while–that is until the 5th inning–when the jumped ahead by putting three more runs on the scoreboard.
With Nowik pitching much better in the 2nd and 3rd and Golde cleaning things up in the top of the 4th, the Scouts gave themselves a chance to regain the lead in the top of the 5th. After Caleb Durbin reached on an error and Drew Golde made it safely to first on a fielder’s choice, Andrew Gough picked up his second big hit of the night on a line drive to right field that scored both base runners. Then, with two outs and Gough now at third, Peter Turelli gave Lake Forest’s defense more cushioning on a RBI single to center field. With a 5-3 lead and nine outs to go, the Scouts started to close in on another upset victory.
Drew Golde led the charge on the bump in the 5th and 6th inning, but then ran into some trouble in the bottom of the seventh. Now with a three-run lead thanks to a Matthew Hill RBI single in the top half of the inning, Golde gave up a leadoff walk prompting head coach Ray DelFava to bring in closer Will Woidat to seal the deal. Woidat did allow the one Mundelein runner to score on a sacrifice fly, but in the end, the tally was irrelevant as Lake Forest went on to win not only the game, but the series as well with the final score being 6-4.
Anytime you beat a team like Mundelein, any type of win is a good win. The Scouts had a total of 11 hits with productive days at the plate from Caleb Durbin, Andrew Gough, Breck Nowik, and Ryan Lee. With that being said, Lake Forest did commit 5 errors and struck out 10 times. Mundelein also had their fair share of mistakes in the game as well, which you don’t see often from the second ranked team in the NSC. With the win, the Scouts are 10-0-1 since April 23 and are currently the hottest team in their conference. They will go for the sweep tomorrow night at home so be sure to head over to varsity field at 4:30 to support the Lake Forest Scouts varsity baseball team.
