Baseball: Lakes defeats Antioch on Nick Traska’s walk-off
Updated: April 18, 2012 10:02PM
With the sun dropping faster than the Cubs’ chances of winning the pennant this year, Nick Traska delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th inning to give host Lakes a come-from-behind 5-4 win over rival Antioch in a North Suburban Prairie baseball game on Wednesday.
Lakes is now 3-3 in the division and 9-10 overall, while Antioch is 2-2 and 9-5.
“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit,” said Traska, who had a sacrifice fly in the first, but then made four outs before his game-winner. “I wanted to come through for my team.”
Lakes swept the two-game series from a solid Antioch squad, winning 12-0 on Tuesday.
“It gives us a lot of confidence that we can beat these good teams,” Traska said. “We’ve had some struggles, but we’ve stuck together. If we keep doing that, we think we can do something in the playoffs.”
Johnny O’Connor walked to start the 11th and Chris Hoffman (3-for-6, three doubles, two RBI) doubled to center. After an intentional walk, Traska delivered his hit.
That made a winner of Robbie Thompson, the fourth pitcher of the game for Lakes, who got the last two outs in the top of the 11th.
It was 2-2 after seven, and there were two-run doubles by Hoffman for Lakes and Adam Harvey for Antioch in the ninth.
Danny Arden pitched eight innings for Antioch, allowing just three hits. He fanned eight and walked four.
“Our guys feel they have a lot to prove,” Lakes coach Ray Gialo said. “We’ve lost some big names the last couple of years and knew we were going to have some growing pains.
“These guys have accepted the challenge. We’ve had some rough patches, but they keep battling. I’m really proud of them.”
In the other dugout, Antioch coach Paul Petty saw his team lose twice this week after winning five straight games last week.
“With this team, it’s a complete-game approach,” Petty said. “We’re going to get back to practice, get back to basics.
“We have to just get right back after it.”
Antioch’s Joe Gregory, in his second game back from a hip injury, was 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI as the DH.
Nick Muscat was 2-for-4 with an RBI, Mitch Everett was 2-for-4, and Adam Warner was 2-for-5.
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