Preview of this week’s INSIDE article:
By Jack Lydon
The Walter Payton College Prep Grizzlies (13-17) unexpectedly reached the Chicago Public League baseball city championship last Monday at the White Sox’ Guaranteed Rate Field only to fall in a thriller to the Kenwood Academy Broncos 2-0.
The young Payton Grizzlies put together an inspired late season run to make it into the City Championship. The Grizzles opened the season four wins against sixteen losses through the beginning of May. Amazingly, the Grizzlies then reeled off eight street victories including convincing wins against Simeon, Lake View and Mather to make to the championship against Kenwood.
The Kenwood Broncos (27-4) came into the game the favorite as the number two ranked team in the Chicago Public League. Despite what might have been considered a lopsided match up going in, the game was a thriller. Grizzlies senior left hander Max McNamara battled pitch-for-pitch, batter-for-batter against Kenwood’s junior left-handed pitcher Kevari Thunderbird, who is one of three brothers on the Broncos varsity team.
“Our record doesn’t indicate it much but baseball is a funny game. You start playing good baseball and its contagious. That’s what we had this year and I am proud of the kids,” said Payton head coach Garry Gustafson, in his second year at Payton. Prior to Payton, Gustafson was the head coach at Niles West for thirty-one years.
“To play in a ballgame like this obviously special for all the kids. That goes for our program and the same thing for Kenwood. We are just very resilient. We are a tough kind of team. We just stay the course and we’ve done that all year long,” Gustafson said.
The Grizzlies struggled against Thunderbird who struck out twelve batters and only gave up two hits and two walks in six scoreless innings. Thunderbird only came out of the game because he reached his pitch limit. The only trouble Thunderbird found was the top of the fifth where he gave up two hits and a walk but worked his way out of the jam.
Grizzlies pitcher Max McNamara matched Thunderbird inning for inning albiet not in quite the same dominant fashion. After giving up four hits and four walks but no runs in the first five innings, McNamara struggled in the bottom of the sixth with the game on the line. A single and a walk to open the inning put two Broncos on base with nobody out. A prefect sacrifice bunt to the Bronocos junior left field Destin Edwards advance the runners to second a third. A hot line drive knocked down by McNamara held the runners. But McNamara the threw the ball over the head of first baseman Lekh Murthy. The runners on second and third scored on the errant throw. That would be all the scoring there was.
“I had a talk with our pitcher [Max McNamara]. I told him that he has to keep his head up. He threw an outstanding game. We can’t hang our heads over one ball down the right field line. We didn’t get enough runs on the board. Our pitcher was outstanding all day, getting ahead and just one little mistake. Mistakes are part of baseball,” Gustafson said.
Broncos pitcher Thunderbird was ebullient after the game.
“I felt good. I wasn’t nervous. I came out prepared. I knew what was going on, I was prepared for it. [After we scored], I felt comfortable in my team that we would finish the job,” Thunderbird said after the game.
Both teams have moved on to IHSA playoffs. Payton defeated Prosser 10-0 on Wednesday moving to face Fenwick in the 3A regional final. Kenwood defeated 5-3 on Wednesday advancing to face Reavis in the 4A regional final.
