Silverman, Andrew Make a Statement in a Baseball Chiller

Like the chilly breeze blowing over the center field fence, the Andrew bats went cold.

The Thunderbolts didn’t hit much and didn’t score much.

Still, they found a way to eke out a 4-3 baseball victory over Homewood-Flossmoor on Thursday afternoon in Tinley Park. Senior right-handed pitcher Justin Silverman deserves much of the credit for picking up the slack on the mound for Andrew.

Silverman pitched six innings and allowed three runs—two earned—on five hits. He struck out five and walked five. And he picked up his first victory on a day when the T-Bolts made a statement.

They can win without putting up double-digit numbers on the scoreboard. And they can find a way to get the job done against good pitching, too.

The Vikings (2-1) threw their ace at Andrew—senior left-hander Dan Lietz. And he lived up to his billing for much of the non-conference battle. Lietz was hitting 88-mph on the speed gun and largely hitting his spots until the bottom of the fifth.

Andrew scored two runs without hitting a ball out of the infield to rally from a 3-2 deficit. The Thunderbolts loaded the bases on three straight errors by the Vikings. Then, Lietz hit two consecutive batters to force in the tying and go-ahead runs.

The victory for Andrew was the T-Bolts’ fifth in six games coming out of the gates.

“This is definitely another statement for us as a team to move forward on, especially early in the season,” Silverman said. “We need these just to boost our confidence and to know we’re going to be in tough situations. So, this is definitely a big statement for us going up against a good pitcher like that. We’re going to build on that.”

Silverman drew a bit of personal satisfaction after playing all his cards on the table—fastball, curve and changeup. He is working on a cutter, too. He is not considered an ace in the caliber of Lietz, at least not yet.

Andrew might not have a pitcher of that caliber on its staff. The T-Bolts aren’t hurting for arms, though. Tim McElhaney pitched a scoreless seventh to notch his second save.

“We don’t really have an ace,” Silverman said. “I think we have such quality with multiple people on the team. It’s definitely more of a team thing where we don’t need one specific person on the mound to beat any team.

“In the dugout, we all have each other’s backs. So, as long as whoever is out there performs—because we can all perform well—and we play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, we can win any game.”

The Thunderbolts (5-1) rocked Oak Forest 20-5 and Thornton Fractional South 16-11 in their two previous outings. Junior center fielder Dan Durkin strung together 10 straight hits over three games before seeing the streak end when he reached on an error in the bottom of the fifth vs. Homewood-Flossmoor. Senior left fielder Justin Rzeszutko clubbed three homers against T.F. South.

The two moved over to share the spotlight with Silverman on Thursday.

“He was just really poised out there,” Durkin said. “When runners got on base, he didn’t let it bother him. He showed he can pitch in big games for us.”

Andrew coach Dave DeHaan has been around the block. He knows runs don’t always come in bunches.

“Sometimes you win ugly, and we’ll take it,” he said. “You’ve got to give credit to their pitcher (Lietz). He’s the real deal. We faced Funkhouser Tuesday (Oak Forest’s Kyle Funkhouser) and he’s in that category with him.

“But give our kids credit. We battled. We put the ball in play. We got a couple breaks here and there. It’s fun right now. We’re on a pretty good streak and having some good at-bats.

“I don’t know how many hits we had today (four). But even our outs—we hit some balls hard to the right side. That’s what we’re preaching to these guys. So, they’ve done a good job.”