Baseball: Grant, 17U Foxes have a grand time at Lombard Summer Slam

Grant Weiland is making a good bid for a big return to Yorkville baseball.

At least if summer translates to spring.

Weiland, a right-handed pitcher who also can play middle infield, did not come out for baseball this past spring after playing his freshman and sophomore years.

He's picked up where he left off.

Weiland has thrown two sparkling outings the last two weekends for the 17U Foxes baseball team, the second part of Yorkville's rain-shortened championship of the Lombard 18U SummerSlam Wood Bat Tourney.

In Saturday's 10-0, five-inning win over the Rockton Ramblers Weiland struck out nine and allowed just one hit – a bad-hop bloop infield single in the fifth.

That performance came on the heels of Weiland's last start, where he threw a perfect game with the exception of one error.

"We knew he could pitch," Foxes coach Scott Luken said. "He's thrown better than I would have hoped. He throws strikes, he attacks the zone, he can throw more than one pitch for strikes and he lets his defense do the work. And offensively he can swing a pretty good bat."

Yorkville's high school team will have a few openings in its starting rotation behind Ty Liaromatis and Stephen Sewruk next spring. Weiland is certainly staking his claim. He also doubled and scored a run in the semifinal at Lombard.

"I really think he can help our ballclub," Luken said. "He's spent some in the weight room. He's big and strong, a tall kid, really solid, he can put the ball in play. We like what we see."

The Foxes went undefeated at Lombard, named co-champs as the final was rained out on Sunday.

Yorkville beat the Lombard Lightning 3-1 in the first game. Michael Wojcik threw two scoreless innings to start the game Friday, and Liaromatis struck out seven in the resumption of the game on Saturday. Liaromatis also doubled, scored a run and drove in a run.

In the 10-0 win over Rockton Sewruk went 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored, Wojcik went 2-for-3 with a double and scored two runs, Liaromatis doubled and drove in two runs and Sebastian Sanchez singled and scored twice.

Sewruk was the winning pitcher, striking out three over five innings, in a 9-3 win over the Norwood Blues in the semifinal. Zach Haddox went 2-for-2 with an RBI and two runs scored and Mark Sommers went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

"It was an 18U tournament, so several of the players we faced were players that had already played in college," Luken said. "I thought that was good in that sense. Our guys are getting more opportunities to play against better competition."

That will certainly be the case this weekend. The Foxes are in action this at the BOMC/Prep Baseball Report 17U Midwest Championship. Yorkville plays Thursday in the 26-team tournament at IC Catholic, with Friday games at Benedictine University and Timothy Christian and a Saturday game back at IC Catholic.

The top 10 teams advance to Sunday's games at Benedictine.

It promises to be a tough weekend of competition, but the Foxes have proved up to challenges before.

"The thing I like most about our guys is they just seem to come together," Luken said. "It's such a grind in the spring, and things get condensed into 3-4 days during the summer. They don't get too high or too low. They have a lot of fun, and it shows in how they play."