Last weekend the Lake Forest Scouts Varsity baseball squad had their fare share of ups and downs. On Friday night the Scouts slaughtered a weak Lake Forest Academy team in five innings thanks to a powerful offense and the Scouts’ first near no-hitter of the season conducted by Jackson Thomas. The following day, however, the Scouts lost on senior day at the hands of Barrington.
On Monday evening the Scouts were hoping to avenge their loss on Saturday, aiming for their 13th victory of the season. With sophomore Peter Turelli on the mound, they had a great chance to do so. The Scouts went up against the struggling Waukegan Bulldogs who are now (1-22) overall this year and made sure to avoid a big upset.
Once Peter Turelli stuck out the side in the top of the first inning, the Scouts wasted no time to get on the board. With one out, Drew Golde reached on a walk, then stole second and third base. On a 2-2 count the Bulldogs catcher let the ball go by him allowing Golde to score from third base. Then with two outs in the inning Brad Czerniejewski walked, stole second, then scored on Andrew Athenson’s first of many RBI’s. With an early 2-0 lead the Scouts were feeling confident.
After the Waukegan’s pitcher and Peter Turelli exchanged shutout innings, the Scouts had their most eventful part of the contest in the third. For Waukegan, the inning could not have started worse. Caleb Durbin was plunked on the fourth pitch of his at bat. Following the walk, Drew Golde got on base for the second time when he singled to center field. With men on first and second with one out the Bulldog’s were in trouble. The next batter up was Brad Czerniejewski, who had the mindset of at least knocking in a run. Just like Durbin, however, he, too, was hit by a pitch. With the bases now loaded and Andrew Athenson at the plate, the best Waukegan could hope for was getting out of the inning only allowing one run, but Athenson had something else in mind. He sent a rocket into right field, scoring all three runners that were on base. Athenson now had four RBI’s on the day and was hungry for more given the fact that the game hadn’t even reached its halfway point. The Scouts tallied on one more run in the inning thanks to a Paul Turelli RBI single. With a six run lead, Waukegan needed to put together an improbable comeback to upset the Scouts.
In the fourth inning, the Scouts extended their lead to seven runs when Durbin scored on a Charlie Reinkemeyer RBI single. Waukegan did indeed answer in the fifth, scoring a run on an avoidable error, but that lone run was nowhere near the amount they needed to crawl back into the contest. With a six run advantage the Scouts’ new goal was to go home early by slaughtering the Bulldogs in 5 innings.
A Jonny Salm RBI double in the fifth gave the Scouts their seven run lead back heading into the bottom of the six, which was the last inning that the Scouts could win thanks to mercy rule against Waukegan. Charlie Reinkemeyer was the first player to reach in the inning on yet another walk. Then Brad Czerniejewski truly put an exclamation point on the Scouts’ dominant evening when he sent a bomb that cleared the fence and scoreboard in left field, giving the Scouts a nine run lead. A single and two walks later, the Scouts had the bases loaded with Ryan Lee at the plate. Lee was able to hit a deep enough fly ball to center field that allowed Andrew Athenson to cross home plate, sealing the Scouts’ 11-1 slaughter rule victory over the Waukegan Bulldogs.
Everything went Lake Forest’s way Monday night. Defensively, Peter Turelli struck out twelve Bulldog batters and only allowed two hits. The defense behind him was strong in not allowing Waukegan to score many runs, let alone get their runners in scoring position. Offensively, the Scouts’ eleven runs told it all. Most of the batters that came to the plate found a way to get on base ether through the five walks that were issued or the multitude of hits. One batter in particular played what might be his best game of the year. Andrew Athenson had four RBI’s including a three run double in the third that really gave the Scouts momentum. If he and the Scouts offense can play like this daily, they will be set to make a deep run in next week’s playoffs.
The Scouts will head out to Waukegan Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 on the road and will return to West Campus for a game Wednesday night to close out their series with the Bulldogs. With this win, the Scouts improved to (13-16) while the Waukegan Bulldogs drop to a disappointing (1-22).
In other news with the baseball program, senior Paul Turelli has committed to continue his career at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Congratulations, Paul, on your accomplishment.
