The Wildkits from Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois, upset the team from California that Madison had beaten in eleven innings to set up a contest with Madison for the Hall of Fame Spring Classic championship. Pitching on short rest Tim Davis brought a tired but still effective arm to the mound and a big bat to the plate in leading the Warhawks to a 4-2 victory. Coach Mark “Pudge” Gjormand later noted, “I thought we were a little edgy and lethargic at the start of the game playing an afternoon game the day after an evening game. We really played six games this week because of the extra inning game. I think we grew up some; it was a team week and everyone contributed.”
Madison countered with Davis for this Thursday afternoon game. He had also started the first game of the tournament Monday morning throwing 59 pitches in four shutout innings against the team from McMinn, Tennessee. He recorded the first two outs on grounders to second then Connor Hackett sliced a single to left field. Jeremias Delgado bounced another single through the left side but Davis ended the threat on a fly to right.
Nate Favero was hit by a pitch leading off the second. He advanced to second on Livingston’s grounder through the wickets at shortstop. Catcher Delgado picked Favero off second with a superb throw to the shortstop covering. Logan Claybrook got a pitch up and drilled it for a single up the middle to put runners at first and second. Binford got the second out on strikes with Delgado hanging onto a tipped strike three to set up the pivotal play of the game.Davis fought off a two strike pitch before stroking a sinking liner to right on a 1-2 offering. The right fielder came racing in and dove headlong for the ball but instead did a face plant and the ball trickled behind him. The impact stunned the right fielder so the center fielder had to come over to retrieve the ball. Livingson scored easily from second and after almost stopping at third Claybrook was waved home too. Davis had to hold at first because the ball was in shallow right meaning that Claybrook scored from first on a single. Jake Hall entered as a courtesy runner and stole second but the inning ended on a ground out. The Warhawks had grabbed an early two run lead.
Davis protected the lead in the bottom of the second with a 1-2-3 inning finishing with a pair of backwards K’s as both batters stood paralyzed by two strike breaking balls.
Andy McGuire led off the third. He drove a ball deep to right leading off the game and had pummeled numerous balls to the outfield throughout the tourney. With the outfield back he was able to parachute a single in front of the oncoming right fielder. Fooled by the lefty’s motion, he took off for second and was out when first baseman Max Siedlecki relayed the pickoff attempt to shortstop Alex Vergara who made the tag. With two outs Jonny Graham jumped on a pitch and lasered a double into the right field corner. The inning ended on a pop to short.
With one out in the bottom of the third Davis issued back to back walks to the first two hitters in the Wildkit order. He recovered to get the third and fourth hitters who had singled back to back in the first to extinguish the threat.
Livingston led off the fourth and drilled a 3-2 pitch to the gap in right but center fielder Evan Binford made a nice play to run it down. His brother Charlie retired the next two hitters on just four pitches.
Brandon Vamarsi led off the bottom of the fourth by grounding a single just under the shortstop’s diving attempt. Siedliecki got new life on a dropped foul pop and took advantage by slapping the seventh pitch of the at bat to center. With runners at first and second, Luke Hackett bunted toward third and Justin Padgett made a good play to get the out at first with the sacrifice putting runners in scoring position. After a called strike three Evan Binford grounded a 2-2 pitch up the middle to score a run and put runners at the corners as Graham hurriedly returned the ball to the infield. Vergara walked to load the bases but Davis once again escaped, this time with an infield fly. He labored through 80 pitches in four innings striking out three. Despite giving up five hits and three walks he managed to strand seven runners and surrendered only one unearned run. It was a gutsy effort pitching on short rest under the Florida sun.
Davis and Binford locked up in an epic battle to start the fifth. After falling behind 0-2, Davis fouled off four two strike pitches. Finally on a 2-2 pitch he stroked a bouncer up the middle past the shortstop’s dive for a lead off single. Hall again entered as a courtesy runner. When Padgett missed a 1-0 bunt attempt Hall moved to second as the catcher threw the ball away trying to pick him off first. Hall alertly tagged up and hauled to third when Padgett flew out to center on a full count pitch. With two outs the swift Ben Socher easily beat out a high chopper the second baseman backhanded to bring home an important insurance run. The inning ended when left fielder Hackett made a splendid diving catch to rob Graham of an extra base tweener.
In the bottom of the fifth the Warhawks brought in southpaw Henry Brandmark to protect a 3-1 lead. He breezed through the 3-4-5 hitters on only eight pitches setting them down in order ending with a called K.
After 77 pitches, the Wildkits pulled Binford in favor of Josh Isenstein. Favero jumped on a 3-1 offering and lashed a single over the leaping second baseman. He stole second and moved to third as Livingston flew out to right on a good piece of two strike hitting. Claybrook chose to wear a pitch on his sleeve to put runners at the corners. Beau Overholt pinch hit and on the first pitch executed a perfect bunt to first to drive in Favero and move Claybrook to second. Tommy Kyllo pinch ran at second and Evanston brought in Jack Anderson who threw one pitch to end the inning. Playing small ball pushed the Madison lead to 4-1.
In the bottom of the sixth Hall came in to play center with Graham sliding over to left. After surrendering a one out walk Brandmark buckled down to get a swinging strike out on a full count. He punctuated a brilliant two inning stint on three pitches for another backwards K to end the inning.
The Wildkits brought in Matt Munro in the top of the seventh to pitch and he quickly retired the side in order.
McGuire came in to close in the bottom of the seventh facing the top of Evanston’s order with Padgett sliding over to short and Dan Powers entering the game to play third. On a 3-2 count lead off hitter Vergara lined one back at McGuire who narrowly averted disaster by deflecting the ball with his pitching hand. He fell with his back on the ground as the ball trickled toward third and Vergara sped to first. Fortunately the ball hit the fleshy part of his palm so after a few warm ups tosses he stayed in the game. He recovered to record a three pitch strike out but then issued a six pitch walk to Hackett. Delgado drove a single to right but Socher returned the ball to the infield quickly and down by three runs the runner held at third to load the bases. Working from the wind up, McGuire uncorked a wild pitch on an 0-2 count to move everyone up 90 feet and score a run. McGuire got another swinging K on the next pitch for the second out. The game ended with Padgett ranging far to his left to gobble up a chopper behind second base and fire a bullet to first for the final out.
The victory gave the Warhawks a well deserved tournament championship as they swept through the week with a perfect 5-0 record. This win typified the streak as many players contributed and execution of little things made the difference. Coach Gjormand summed it up by saying, “Tim did a good job pitching on short rest; his hitting was just as important. Henry did a great job and Andy showed some toughness in coming back from being hit on his pitching hand. It was great to get a trophy at the end of the week. Hopefully there are more in front of us.”
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