Baseball: Rand brothers team up to beat Grayslake North

Grayslake Central senior righthander Nolan Rand received some vital family support in Tuesday’s Northern Lake County Conference baseball opener with visiting Grayslake North.

Rocco Rand, a sidearming junior righty, made sure his older brother’s first and last varsity start was a success for the Rams (7-1, 1-0) as they parlayed 6 North errors into a 5-4 walk-off victory.

Rocco’s support will be even more vital in the coming days. Nolan is undergoing surgery Wednesday for a concave (sunken) chest that he said started bothering him just before the season started.

“It was pretty cool,” Nolan said of Rocco’s perfect 2⅔ innings.

“It was sad to see him come out,” Rocco said after Nolan settled down from a shaky start. “I wanted him to go the whole game, but then I wanted to go out and finish the game and get the win.”

North (1-7) jumped on Nolan for a 4-0 lead in the second but he settled down and finished with 4 strikeouts and no walks while throwing 68 of his 89 pitches for strikes.

“I didn’t know if I wanted to play baseball or get the surgery … but I just wanted to be a part of it,” Nolan said. “I knew what I was doing wrong and I made the adjustment. I slowed down my pace and was striding longer.”

The first of Rocco’s 3 strikeouts helped strand the go-ahead run at third in the fifth.

“Nolan is a super-good kid and I told him we’ll throw you until your arm falls off because you’ll be medicated tomorrow anyway,” said a smiling Central coach Troy Whalen. “He settled in after the first inning and made some good pitches and it was special for his younger brother to come in behind him.”

Mitchell Hughes doubled and homered and Owen Pischke (2-for-3) had a 2-run single for the Knights. JD Novacek’s RBI single capped a 3-run first and Sean McMahon and Andrew Winling had 2 hits as they out-hit the Rams 10-3.

“If we deliver 7 clean innings we can compete with anybody,” said North coach Eric Lopez. “I told the guys the first half-inning was the most fun I’ve had the entire season. It was nice to see some of their hard work pay off.”

Central tied it in a 3-run third without a hit and diving grabs in right by Sam Nerini and center by Bryce Carlson kept it even in the fourth. The Rams won it in the seventh on 2 errors, an intentional walk and an off-line throw home on Soren Hansen’s grounder to third.

“I told the kids afterward we’ll never apologize for a ‘W,’” Whalen said.

Especially on a day where it meant so much to the Rand brothers.