GBN Freshman-A Baseball Rallies From Behind, Beating Buffalo Grove

The GBN Freshman-A squad dug a hole for themselves early in this game, giving up five runs in the top half of the first inning.  Between a combination of errors and poor control early for Jared Epstein, the GBN team found themselves digging out from a moderate deficit early.  However, the GBN Freshman-A team is used to scoring runs and producing potent offensive numbers so the task was not insurmountable. 

The key for the players was to chip away at the Bison lead a little at a time and not give up anymore.  Fortunately, that is exactly what happened.  In the bottom half of the first, lead-off hitter, Sage Bruhl singled on a dramatic infield hit laying himself out at first in a dramatic head first slide to secure the bag.  After that he came around to score following a second base steal and being knocked in by the powerful three hitter David Burnside. 

Jared Epstein settled down in the cold and the defense began to come together, stopping the Bison team from scoring over the next three innings.  Later in the game, Robert Stocking relieved Epstein and held the Bison team to just two more runs while the offense continued to crack into the Buffalo Grove lead.  Stocking was masterful mixing his pitches and keeping the Bison hitters off balance.  During the early part of the season, Stocking has been a surprise for the Spartan freshmen with his offensive power at the plate and his ability to locate pitches when coming on in relief. 

In the sixth inning, the Spartan freshman squad finally came through and took the lead for good with timely hitting and swiping bases from a Bison battery unable to keep runners at bay.  After securing the lead, power pitcher, Danny Ahern, came into to shut the door and take away the key from the Bison hitters striking out two in the top half of the seventh.

The GBN Freshman-A squad is now 7-1 overall and averaging over 10 runs a game behind a one through nine hitting juggernaut.  Anywhere in the line-up, their hitters can hurt you and there is plenty of speed to move runners into scoring position making them a formidable opponent for most teams in the Central Suburban League.  The GBN freshmen square off against Conant Saturday in Hoffman Estates at 10:30 A.M. and 1:00 P.M.