When he walked toward the baseball field Monday afternoon at North Central College, Addison Trail pitcher Chris Sobieszczyk saw a pop foul headed his way.
Naturally, he took off his cap, grabbed it by the bill and made a great backhanded catch, receiving a nice round of applause from the fans.
The senior right-hander pulled no such tricks while pitching Tuesday night at North Central. Just the same, he managed to shut down Hoffman Estates 4-2 to lead the Blazers (27-1) to the High School Summer League title.
Facing a team that had a combined batting average of .331 going into the final two days of the tournament, Sobieszczyk (8-0) stopped the Hawks cold for five-plus innings, giving up only one solid hit out of Hoffman Estates` four singles.
The heat eventually got to ”Soby” in the sixth, and he gave way to reliever Steve Maynard, who got in trouble early but wound up recording his second tournament save.
Maynard also had a victory and went 5 for 13 at the plate in Addison Trail`s three games, thus earning the tourney`s Most Valuable Player award.
”I was trying to overthrow towards the end there,” said Sobieszczyk, whose fastball is as difficult to hit as his name is to spell. ”I was keeping my fastball low and away, but the fastball is what eventually hurt me in the sixth.”
Addison Trail scored one run in the first on a groundout by first baseman Ken Hurley, and added another in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Mike Pellicane to take a 2-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Sobieszczyk stifled the Hawks on no runs and two infield singles through the first five innings.
A two-run double by Blazers catcher Tom Miniscalco with two outs in the sixth gave Addison Trail a four-run lead, and the weary Hawks, who were playing their second game of the day (they eliminated Lincoln-Way 3-1 in the first game) appeared too pooped to rally.
”No doubt about it, they were tired,” said Addison Trail coach Steve Heuerman. ”By that time, they had some slow bats out there. It`s tough to play two times in one day in this heat.”
Heuerman won the pregame coin toss and had the choice of either having the shaded dugout on the third-base side or being the home team. Having seen Hoffman Estates (23-6) steam up during Monday`s 3-2 Blazer victory, when the Hawks had to sit in the sweltering dugout with a full exposure to the sun, Heureman wisely gave up last at-bats in favor of the cooler dugout.
The strategy nearly backfired, as Hoffman Estates mounted a threat in the bottom of the sixth. Losing pitcher Ben Curcio (3-3) ripped a single to center field to put runners on first and second with no outs, leading Heuerman to replace Sobieszczyk with Maynard to face slugger Ryan Broaddus.
The result was a 6-4-3 double play, but Maynard then walked Sam Fasano and gave up a two-run triple to Mike Owsley to cut the lead to 4-2. Eric Riebel fanned to end the inning, however, and Maynard retired the side in order in the seventh to preserve the win.
”Our backs were to wall, and it was obvious we were tired,” said Hoffman Estates coach Ray Gawron. ”Fasano catches 14 innings for us today, Curcio plays seven innings at short and then goes out and throws a complete game, but we kept coming back and never gave in.”
