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Baseball: Glenbrook North ‘underdog’ Bruce lets his play do the talking
Park Ridge Tuesday 4/24/12 Glenbrook North's#22 Chad Bruce slides under the tag of Maine East's#13 Andrew Glowacki at second base. | Jerry Daliege~for Sun-Times Media
Updated: July 2, 2012 8:24AM
While Glenbrook North baseball teammates Jason Scholl and Peter Resnick were accepting bids to attend Eastern Illinois University and Bradley, respectively, nothing was on the radar for senior center fielder Chad Bruce.
“I kind of expected it,” Bruce said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be getting offers in the mail or anything so I knew I had to play my best to try and get anywhere. I went to camps and I tried to perform in front of coaches, and I got some interest, but Dayton was my main interest.”
Bruce’s new goal is to walk on to Dayton’s baseball team by impressing the coaching staff. And Glenbrook North head coach Dom Savino doesn’t think Bruce will have any trouble when it comes to tryouts.
“He’s a competitor, and he wants to be successful in everything that he does,” Savino said. “That’s at defense, that’s at the plate, and it’s the way he approaches practice. It’s his willingness to compete in everything that he does that allows him to be such a good baseball player.”
However, the senior’s skill set won’t be unfamiliar to his potential future coaches at Dayton.
“They talked to me, and they liked how I played, but they didn’t offer anything, so it’s fine,” Bruce said. “I like working hard for a position, so I want to show everyone that I’m a hard worker and I can get my way onto the team. It’s the underdog factor. I’ve been playing baseball my whole life, and obviously I want to play college baseball. Having that underdog factor, people underrate you, and then it’s just a good feeling when you come up there and exceed their expectations.”
In the final game of the regular season, the Spartans (24-11, 11-5 CSL) beat Libertyville 11-4 at home on Saturday.
“I felt very good about the pitching, the hitting and the defense that we played,” Savino said. “I think it’s one of the more complete games that we’ve played this year. It’s an outstanding way to end the regular season against a great program.”
The CSL North champs were coming off a 4-0 loss to CSL South winner. The Hawks did not allow a hit.
Glenbrook North was set to open postseason play in the Stevenson Regional against Buffalo Grove on Wednesday.
