Baseball: Glenbrook North ends Elk Grove’s Cinderella run
Elk Grove had endured a pair of 8-game losing streaks en route to dropping 23 of their 29 regular season games and finishing dead last in the Mid-Suburban East.
Then, all of a sudden, like the simple flicking of a light switch, Steve Lesniak's Grenadiers put together their best baseball of the season last week in winning three straight games at Maine South to procure its first regional crown since 2019 with wins over Senn, second-seeded sectional host Lane Tech, and the regional host Hawks.
Fifteenth-seeded Elk Grove made the trek into Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood Wednesday where No. 3 Glenbrook North awaited them at Lane's home field Kerry Wood Cubs Park in a Class 4A sectional semifinal with a berth in Saturday afternoon's final at stake.
After spotting the Grenadiers a 2-0 lead, the Spartans used a pair of big innings to end Elk Grove's postseason 7-2, sending GBN (25-10-1) to Saturday's 1 p.m. contest versus No. 4 Evanston (24-7-1), a 6-1 victor over No. 1 seed New Trier (31-4) in Wednesday's opening game.
Elk Grove (9-23) scored first thanks to a successfully executed double steal in their half of the second. Catcher Dylan Berkowitz stole second allowing center fielder Nick Jimenez to steal home as a result of a high throw that attempted to nab Berkowitz giving them a 1-0 lead.
They made it 2-0 in the top of the fourth when starting pitcher Lucas Rogers scored when Spartan first baseman Sam Gaffney couldn't corral a throw from third putting the Grens ahead 2-0 heading into the bottom of the frame.
It was there that Gaffney made up for his fielding miscue when he clobbered a Rogers pitch deep to right-center for a triple that drove in center fielder Chase Peterson that pulled GBN within 2-1. That launched a three-run outburst that Spartans shortstop Ethan Bass tied the game at with his own three-base hit that brought Gaffney in.
He would score to give them a 3-2 lead when the next batter, third baseman Ryan Rossi, beat out an infield grounder.
Then a solo shot by Bass in the North half the sixth ignited a four-run frame that center fielder Noah Delgado completed with a three-run double making it a 7-2 Spartans lead.
"The pitcher has given me two curve balls and I know he's going to back to it and I just took it to the other side," Bass said. "It's 4-2 at that point, then we get bases loaded then Del gets a double and (now) we're up 7-2. It's awesome that we got stuff going. Amazing."
After talking with his team, Lesniak spoke of how proud he was of them.
"We had some big wins throughout the season,“ he said. ”I know we didn't have a ton (of them) but we had some great outings and performances and just building on that knowing that we could play with anyone if we play our style of baseball. It was a culmination of those little things throughout the year. I give our kids a ton of credit.
For Rogers, one of three seniors on the squad along with Matt Martoano and Mo Burt, it marked the end of a three-year varsity career playing football and basketball at Elk Grove.
"We started off slow, then picked it up, held ourselves more accountable and got it done,“ Rogers said. ”We figured it out during playoffs and got hot. I can't believe it's over. Today was my last game. It's crazy (and) it was awesome. It's just been a blessing."