Coming into Monday evening’s game against the Mundelein Mustangs, the Lake Forest Scouts Varsity baseball team was riding a 4 game win streak that featured plenty of offense, strong pitching, and solid defense. However, the team knew that they would have to be their sharpest if they wanted to continue their streak going against the Mundelein Mustangs, who are currently in a tight battle with Libertyville for the top spot in the North Suburban Conference. Scouts Head Coach Ray Del Fava gave Paul Turelli the start while Mundelein put Brendan Murphy on the bump, who is notorious for shutting down the opposing team’s offense.
As expected, the game was a pitchers duel. In the first three innings Murphy shut down the Scouts offense by striking out seven batters, but the Mustangs could not take advantage of his fantastic pitching because Paul Turelli was also extremely dominant. Not only was the game scoreless through three, but neither team could get a runner in scoring position. In fact, only one baserunner got on for Mundelein while the Scouts were getting a perfect game tossed against them. All of that changed in the fourth though when Mundelein broke the seal.
After Caleb Durbin broke up the perfect game on a double to left in the top of the fourth, Mundelein got cooking on offense. Brendan Murphy proved that he can do more than just pitch when he came up to the plate and whacked a two-bagger to left field with no outs giving the Mustangs their first scoring chance of the game. After Jacob Holten grounded out, advancing Murphy to third base, Jeff Morton hit a sacrifice fly deep enough to score Holton who was pinch running for the Mustangs’ pitcher. The Scouts were only trailing by a run and were hoping to keep it that way. Brett Parola was next up for the Mustangs and the Scouts desperately wanted to keep him off the base paths. Turelli managed to strike him out, but the ball bounced away from the Scouts catcher allowing Parola to reach on a drop third strike. Now, the Scouts were in trouble because Parola has wheels. Not only did Parola steal second, but he also stole third. On a 2-2 count, Turelli threw one away from the catcher again allowing Parola to cross the plate and effectively giving Mundelein a 2-0 lead. The batter would later strikeout.
Murphy continued to prevent chance after chance for the Scouts. The Scouts did manage to get a hit in every single inning after the fourth, but they never got a runner into scoring position.
It was desperation time in the bottom half of the sixth for the Scouts as Paul Turelli looked to halt the Mundelein offense one more time. Brendan Murphy was the first batter to get on in the inning with a single to center field, who later scored on a Jeff Morton triple to right field.
Murphy completed the shutout in the seventh by striking out two of the four batters to come to the plate, ending the Scouts’ four game win streak.
The Scouts could not really get going on offense Monday evening. Their defense was sharp and once again Paul Turelli pitched a solid game, but Mundelein only needed one runner to come across the plate to beat the Scouts. Brendan Murphy, who struck out 13 batters, may have been the toughest pitcher Lake Forest will face in this three game set, but it won’t get much easier given the fact that the Mustangs are stacked with talented pitching. If the Scouts can limit the amount of runs the Mustangs score against them in the next two games while scoring a couple runs themselves, they are bound to at least take one game against a very difficult Mundelein team.
With last night’s win Mundelein improves to (23-4) on the season and is fighting with Libertyville for the NSC Championship. Meanwhile, the Scouts are now (10-14) and fifth in conference play. It is now crunch time for the Scouts with only nine games remaining in the regular season as they look to improve their record to above .500. The Scouts will be at West Campus tonight at 4:30 in game two of their three game set against Mundelein in hopes of upsetting one of the top dogs in their division. Come support your Lake Forest Scouts Varsity baseball team Tuesday evening.
