WLB baseball v. Normal Metcalf

[September 01, 2016]  The boys baseball team got revenge on the team that eliminated them from the IESA state series last season in a 7-5 home win over Normal Metcalf. Metcalf defeated the Wolverines last season in the Sectional game and went on to play in the State Tournament. This time around, it was the young Wolverines that took care of business led by two 8th graders on the mound defensively and a 6th and 7th grader offensively.

Eighth-grader Patrick McCraith (1-1) took to the mound as the starter and threw an impressive 4 scoreless innings of work giving up only 1 hit, 2 walks, while striking out 8. Fellow eight-grader Lucas Konczyk finished the final three innings and also was impressive. Konczyk alllwed 5 runs, 4 earned, on 5 hits, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts, including the final strike-out of the game with the tying run at the plate.

WLB took a 7-0 lead into the 7th inning before a late Wildcat rally plated 5 runs in the inning. Konczyk stayed tough and struck out the final batter to end the game.

Offensively, seventh-grader Scotty Battin and sixth-grader Jacob Langley both went deep over the brand new permanent outfield fence at Miller Field; Battin's an opposite field, two-strike four-bagger and Langley's a bomb to straight-away center field.

Battin's blast came in the 5-run 2nd inning after Trey Schilling scored on a balk moving Camden Nelson to 2nd base. Battin took a 1-2 pitch over the right field fence scoring two.

Langley's homer came in the bottom of the 6th inning making the score 7-0 at the time. The solo home run proved to be a big run as Metcalf came within two runs of stealing the victory from the Wolverines.

McCraith added a single in the first inning and scored the game's first run on an aggressive baserunning play on a wild pitch. Sam Gleason and Nelson both added a single. Nelson had an RBI and scored a run. Drew Eimer walked twice and scored a run. Schilling scored a run and had an RBI.

The win improved the Wolverine record to 3-3 on the season. WLB will take on Carroll Catholic on Saturday, September 3 at the Logan County Baseball Tournament at 12:00pm at host school Chester-East Lincoln.

Logan County Baseball Tournament:
Thursday, September 1 at CEL
4:00pm - #4 Seed CEL v. #5 Seed Hartem

Saturday, September 3rd at CEL
10:00am - #1 Seed Mt. Pulaski v. Winner of CEL/HE
12:00pm - #2 Seed Carroll v. #3 Seed WLB
2:00pm - Championship Game

[Jeff Nelson]