Coming into the series against Zion-Benton the Lake Forest Scouts wanted nothing more than to sweep the struggling Zee-Bees and make a push to the top of their conference. Tuesday night, however, the Scouts’ hopes came crashing down when Zee-Bee pitcher Logan Bakkila only gave up two runs on four hits, granting the Bees their fourth victory of the season. Heading into Wednesday evening’s contest the Scouts sought revenge and were hopeful that their offense would once again ignite. For the first time since he pitched a one hitter on April 25th against Lake Zurich, Peter Turelli took the mound as a starting pitcher. Once again, the Zee-Bees would be facing fantastic pitching and an offense that always has the potential to be dangerous.
After Peter Turelli successfully pitched his first shutout inning of the night, the Lake Forest Scouts offense took an early lead in the first inning when Charlie Reinkemeyer hit a single that scored Drew Golde–who had previously hit a double to left field–but Zion-Benton would have an answer in the top half of the second.
The Zee-Bees second inning began with a single by Andrew Greene, then a walk put him in scoring position. With two men on and two men out, Greene and Brandon Ruiz both moved up a base when Peter Turelli threw a ball that got by his brother, Paul, who was catching. Following the mistake, the runner on 3rd scored on a passed ball from Turelli. With the game tied and the bottom of the second approaching, the Zee-Bee’s had no idea what they had coming.
Brad Czerniejewski led off the bottom of the second inning with a full-count walk. Following the walk, Czerniejewski stole second base and advanced to third when Andrew Athenson grounded out. Without a hit in the inning, the Scouts had a man 90 feet from the plate and the lead. Brian Heidbreder was able to give the Scouts the lead right back when he hit a RBI single to right field. Later in the bottom half of the inning with men on first and second, Drew Golde sent a scorching single to right field, scoring Heidbreder from second. With a 3-1 lead entering the third inning, the Scouts made sure that they settled in.
The Scouts started the third with back-to-back-to-back singles, the third of which that came off the bat of Brad Czerniejewski, which gave the Scouts their fourth run of the contest. After Zee-Bees starting pitcher Andrew Greene picked up his first out of the inning, Brian Heidbreder picked up his second and third RBI’s of the game when he singled to right field. All of a sudden, the Scouts had a commanding 6-1 lead and there was still only one out in the inning. Caleb Durbin tacked on another run onto the scoreboard when he singled to right field scoring Heidbreder. With a six run cushion over a team that has struggled all season long, the Scouts would not show any mercy.
In the fifth inning the Scouts made the Zee-Bees immense deficit even greater when Caleb Durbin hit a triple, followed by a Drew Golde Sacrifice fly. Lake Forest’s lead was now up to seven runs with only two innings to go play.
In the sixth inning,Parker Messner took over the pitcher’s mound and did not grant Zion any chance at a comeback. In the top of the seventh, Messner ended the game with a 1-2-3 inning and notched two shutout innings, earning Lake Forest an 8-1 victory and their first win of the season against the Zion-Benton Zee-Bee’s.
The Scouts offense really came alive Wednesday night. In fact, they had ten more hits than they did last night (14) compared to Tuesday night (4). The Scouts ended up with 8 runs at the end of the game, but the offense wasn’t the only impressive thing on Wednesday. Peter Turelli and the Scouts’ defense were terrific. Turelli did give up six hits, but he did a fantastic job of getting out of jams to prevent Zion-Benton from making the game close. The defense behind Turelli Wednesday was the best it has been all year. The Scouts ended up putting a zero in the error column last night for the first time in what seems like a while. Almost everything played out perfectly for the Scouts.
The rubber match between Zion-Benton and Lake Forest will be at West Campus on Thursday at 4:30. Come support your Lake Forest Scouts as they look to take the series against the Zion-Benton Zee-Bees.
