Warriors swipe game, series from Trevians, who drop to 8-4 in early going

Baseball can have cruel ways of reminding you that the last three outs are the toughest ones to get.

New Trier suffered one of those harsh lessons Thursday night thanks to some late-game theatrics from a conference foe.

The Deerfield Warriors rallied to erase the one-run deficit in the final frame and walk off the Trevians with a 2-1 victory on Thursday, April 16, at Duke Childs Field in Winnetka.

New Trier’s ace Nick Bailey stymied the Warriors’ bats through the first 19 outs. But with one away in the bottom of the seventh, the Warriors got exactly what they needed to find life:

Bailey leaving the game.

Bailey reached his pitch-count limit, forcing the Trevians to go to the bullpen. From there, five consecutive Warriors reached base — three walks and two singles — in the comeback effort.

“What I talked to the team about was that today’s game wasn’t lost in the seventh inning,” New Trier head coach Dusty Napoleon said. “We had opportunities earlier in the game with runners on base and we have to come through in those moments.

“If we had added a run, that seventh inning would have felt like a different inning. … The learning (from today) is that we have to continue to add on and not be satisfied with the lead.”

New Trier’s one run came just three batters into the game when the Trevs freshman slugger Chase Estrada ripped a line-drive single to left field to score leadoff man Mason Bloom.

It’s a rare sight to see a first-year high-schooler hit in the heart of the varsity team’s batting order, but it’s particularly notable for a program with a track record of success like New Trier.

Napoleon cannot remember another such instance, and Estrada is already showing he’s up to the task.

“He’s very mature as a kid and also mature in his baseball sense,” Napoleon said. “We had a chance to watch him last year during summer camp and we saw the approach. He had a really great tryout this year and physically he belongs here.

“He’s had an awesome start to the year for us.”

That strong start is showing up in boxscores: Estrada is hitting north of .400 and leads the Trevians in runs batted in.

Back for his third season on varsity, Bloom is once again a fixture at the top of New Trier’s lineup. The Trevs’ “table-setter” was in fine form again Thursday, reaching base three times (two hits and a walk) and swiping two bags.

The Trevs have shuffled the lineup a bit in the early going due to injuries, Napoleon said, noting that the club is without Harry Resis, one of its middle-of-the-order bats.

Seniors Bailey and Greg Campitelli give the Trevs a top-of-the-rotation pair of arms that Napoleon believes can match up against anyone. And so far this season, the hurlers have lived up to that billing.

Bailey fired another dominant outing on Thursday, tossing 6 1/3 scoreless innings against the Warriors with 12 strikeouts.

Bailey was a key arm on New Trier’s staff last season, but he predominantly pitched in relief. New Trier thought about utilizing him in a similar role this season, but injuries pushed the team to shift Bailey to the starting rotation.

“He was outstanding today,” Napoleon said. “He had his slider, his cutter and his fastball all working today.”

Napoleon was particularly encouraged by Bailey’s ability Thursday to hold the Warriors scoreless despite a couple of strong scoring chances.

Deerfield opened each of the third, fifth and sixth innings with doubles. But Bailey stranded each of those baserunners and allowed only one of them to reach third.

“He’s a tough kid and he’s a great competitor,” Napoleon said. “No moment is too big for him. He pitched in a lot of big games for us last year, so he knows what it takes.”

Nearly matching Bailey pitch-for-pitch was Deerfield’s starter Liam Connolly, a junior lefty who stuck out 10 Trevians and allowed just four hits and two walks over six innings of work.

Senior Jesse Feldman relieved Connolly for the seventh, retiring the Trevians in order while punching out two.

Although the series finale was in Winnetka, the Warriors played as the home team because the game was originally slated to take place in Deerfield but moved to New Trier because of field conditions.

The loss Thursday resulted in the Trevs dropping their first Central Suburban League South series of the season, moving their early season mark to 8-4 as of Friday, April 17.

New Trier will take on Fremd this Saturday, April 18 before squaring off with the Glenbrook North Spartans next week in their second CSL series.

A “big focus” for the Trevians right now is the team’s bullpen, Napoleon said, noting that the club is looking to find a couple more arms ready for high-leverage situations.

Offensively, as it so often does, their success comes down to two-strike hitting.

“We need to also continue working on our two-strike approach — that’s a big piece of emphasis for us moving forward,” he said. “We have to put more balls in play. We have to do a better job there.”

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