Baseball: Griffin Sleyko throws 9-strikeout complete game in return to mound, pitches Oswego East past Oswego

OSWEGO – Griffin Sleyko trusted his arm enough to realize he needed some time off.

Oswego East’s senior pitcher acknowledged that his arm hadn’t been feeling the greatest the last couple starts. Sleyko was experiencing some fatigue, so he asked to take a rest week and skip a turn in the rotation.

“It helped a lot,” Sleyko said. “I’m a big rest guy. I did a lot of running for recovery, hit the sauna, just a lot of rest and sleep.”

It proved to be just what the doctor ordered.

Sleyko made his return to the mound Tuesday night with a vengeance. The Wolves’ right-hander struck out nine in a complete-game, two-hit masterpiece. Oswego East pieced together just enough offense behind Sleyko to beat Oswego 4-1 under the lights in the opener of a key three-game series between Southwest Prairie West leaders.

Sleyko (5-3) set down eight batters in a row after being nicked for a run in the first inning. Then he retired the final nine batters he faced, the last as he was nearing the 105-pitch limit.

“For him, especially this game, it took a minute to settle in and get his rhythm. Once he found it, I think he was tough,” Oswego East coach Brian Schaeffer said. “He’s competed against everybody, he’s seen everybody’s best this year, and he continues to step up and do what he needs to do.”

Josh Polubinski singled in a run in the first inning, and Mike Polubinski went 2 for 3 and reached base three times with an RBI double in a two-run Oswego East seventh. Mason Blanco went 2 for 2, reached base three times and drove in the go-ahead run in the second for the Wolves (17-7, 8-2).

Eddie Scaccia and Dominic Stringham combined to strike out 14 batters for Oswego (18-9, 8-2).

Sleyko’s stuff was not particularly crisp out of the chute, hardly looking like a pitcher who would go the distance.

In the first inning he walked leadoff man Chase Gerwig, who came around to score on Tyler Stack’s sacrifice fly. Trey Hernandez followed with a booming double to the gap.

But Sleyko escaped further trouble and found his groove in the second inning, striking out the side. Oswego’s first two batters reached in the fourth, but Sleyko coaxed an inning-ending groundout to leave the bases loaded.

“He competed the entire time,” Schaeffer said. “He made pitches when he needed to make pitches. He kept them guessing a lot of the night with his slider and changeup. His fastball really became his secondary pitch, and he just competed.”

Indeed, Sleyko’s slider consistently whispered across the outer edge of the zone to right-handed batters. It either had them swinging through it weakly or walking away frustrated after taking a called-third strike. Five of Sleyko’s nine strikeouts came on called-third strikes.

“It was huge. He [the umpire] was calling it outside, so I’m going to take advantage of that,” Sleyko said. “I took advantage of it with my curveball outside to righties and back in with the changeup inside on righties, I had a couple strikeouts on that. Overall I just made some adjustments that allowed me to locate and do what I do best.”

Sleyko located his offspeed pitches much more effectively as the game progressed, and even seemed to throw harder after the first inning.

“It’s not like my arm hurt today, but it almost felt kind of slow. I’m hoping to ramp it up in the next week,” Sleyko said. “As you could tell, my fastball wasn’t as hard as I’ve thrown in the past, but I supplemented it really well with my offspeed. I was a little amped up there in the first inning, but I was able to make some adjustments.”

Hernandez had both hits for Oswego, which came in scoring almost seven runs per game but was held to its lowest output since the season’s second game.

“We couldn’t get anything going offensively,” Oswego coach Joe Giarrante said. “We left some baserunners in some timely spots and didn’t execute the way we wanted to. We have to learn to battle there in counts and dig a little deeper.

“We’ll come back tomorrow and see a different game.”

Scaccia, two weeks removed from a 14-strikeout combined no-hitter, struck out seven, striking out the side in the fourth, his final inning.

But he also hit two batters, both of whom scored. Stringham, who struck out seven in relief, hit a batter and issued a walk in the seventh, and both came around to score.

“We talk about it all the time, about not giving up freebies,” Giarrante said. “It’s always an amped up atmosphere in this game. Our kids have to learn to play through it.”

Oswego East managed just six hits, the biggest not leaving the infield. Liam Mitchell was hit by a pitch leading off the second, and with two out Blanco just beat out an infield hit for a 2-1 lead that stayed that way into the seventh.

“We’ve talked to them throughout the entire year – if the bats aren’t hot, we have to small ball and execute,” Schaeffer said. “We executed enough to add what we needed.”