Crystal Lake South’s Mark Pachla makes fast work of St. Viator

GRAYSLAKE – Mark Pachla’s fastball might not be able to break a pane of glass, but the senior righty sure is a pain to baseball hitters.

Crystal Lake South’s 75-mph thrower has been hearing it from opponents his whole varsity career. His fastball makes their eyes get wide. Hitters expect line drives, only to have long drives home after being frustrated by the crafty Pachla.

Before Pachla took the mound against St. Viator in Thursday’s Class 3A sectional semifinal at Grayslake Central, his ears perked when he heard the Lions talking about him.

“I could hear them in the dugout – ‘This guy’s throwing slow. Let’s tee off on him. Barrel party.’ Stuff like that,” Pachla said.

St. Viator barreled up several balls, but couldn’t solve Pachla, who improved to 9-2 with South’s 4-0 win that earned the third-seeded Gators (25-12) a spot in Saturday’s 11 a.m. sectional final against No. 4 Cary-Grove (23-12).

South and C-G split their two Fox Valley Conference games.

Pachla went the distance for the second time in the postseason, allowing only four hits – all singles – while striking out three, walking one and hitting a batter. He worked quickly and efficiently, needing only 70 pitches (52 strikes) to dispatch No. 7 St. Viator (20-18).

Jacob Oberwise and Alec Harer were both 2 for 3 for the Lions, who flew out eight times. Brayden Hynek lined out to South shortstop Carson Trivellini leading off the seventh.

“It was definitely slower than we’ve seen in a long time,” Oberwise said of Pachla’s pitches. “They played us perfectly with the shift in the outfield. We had a lot of balls hit very hard that they had to move maybe one or two steps for. It’s a really tough one. We know we’re better than that. It’s a tough way to go out.”

The soft-tossing Pachla doesn’t let the noise bother him. He lets his well-placed fastballs and off-speed pitches do the talking.

“I drown it out,” said Pachla, who has allowed only one run and seven hits in 14 postseason innings. “I just try to focus on myself, lock in on the mound, hit my spots and let the defense do the work.”

Sophomore catcher Jackson Lee drove in South’s first three runs, and his two-run single in the third was the big blow. After Nolan Dabrowski (2 for 4) singled with one out, and Yandel Ramirez (2 for 3) followed with a double to deep left field, Lee singled into the hole, scoring both runners.

Lee added a sacrifice fly in the fifth, scoring Dabrowski.

“It feels great,” said Lee, who was batting fifth in the order. “All I really cared about was getting my team the win. Whatever it is, even if it’s not the prettiest hit, I just want to do anything I can to get those runs across.”

Xander Shevchenko gave Pachla one more insurance run with a booming RBI double in the sixth, ending the day for Lions starter Alister Kanyuh.

Oberwise singled with one out in the St. Viator seventh. Then after a pop out, Pachla hit Tanner Beyna and gave up a hard-hit single to Harer to load the bases. But Pachla got the next hitter to ground out to second to end it.

“No. 1, the credit goes to [Pachla],” Lions coach Terry Beyna said. “He threw strikes. He threw strikes with off-speed. I did we think we hit some balls hard. We hit some at ‘em balls, but at the end of the day, the kid attacked with his off-speed and kept us off-balance.”

Brandon Thomsen, St. Viator’s No. 3 hitter, hit three balls hard, but all were flyouts.

“We were definitely working a lot outside,” Lee said. “Their (No.) 3 hitter [Thomsen] was definitely their best hitter. We were just trying to work away with him, out of the zone, trying to get him to swing at some bad pitches.”

South played errorless ball, and Pachla never allowed a leadoff batter to reach base.

“They were hitting [balls] hard. I’m not going to lie,” Pachla said of the Lions. “They were barreling the ball, but our guys were in the right spots and made the plays.”