8U Finds Its Place Alongside Lake Forest Travel Baseball Teams

Inspired by a gifted group of athletes seven years ago amid some controversy, the Scouts 8-and-under team has become a mainstay for the  

LFBA organizes competitive traveling baseball teams in age groups 8 through 14 with the aim of preparing players to play in high school and beyond, according to its website. The 8U Scouts are the newest addition this season.

This edition of the 8U Scouts is 14-7 for the season and 11-5 in league play. They are seeded second in the North Shore Baseball League playoffs, and open play at 5:30 p.m. Friday against the Lake Bluff-Wheeling winner at in Lake Forest. 

The Scouts are coming off a second-place finish in last weekend’s Glenview Tournament, where the Lake Forest team put coach Rick Hoskins’ teachings from the season to work on the field. His biggest challenge coaching a group of boys just out of second grade heading into third is helping them focus on playing six innings of baseball. 

“We use that word (focus) regularly. We use it in practice and in games,” Hoskins said. “We preach it every inning.”

It all came together Sunday morning in the tourney semifinal against Glenview. The Scouts trailed 5-0, climbed back to take a 9-5 lead and lost the edge falling behind again 13-9 heading into the bottom of the sixth with the end of the batting order coming to bat. 

The rally began with the seventh hitter as Lake Forest closed the gap to 13-12 with runners on second and third and the 15th batter in the lineup, William Rourke, coming to the plate. Everyone on the roster is in the batting order.

 ”He (Rourke) had been in a bit of a slump, but he ripped a double to right to win the game” 14-13, Hofkins said. 

Rourke said he listened to Hoskins’ instruction to put his team in the championship game. “Coach told me to wait for one strike and then hit the ball,” Rourke said. “It felt good. It was my first hit of the year.” 

Hoskins also has to mold a group of 15 individual players into a team where they must develop skills they did not have before. Before joining the Scouts, none had pitched or played catcher in competitive baseball. 

“They have to learn to play one position,” Hoskins said. “In the house league they alternated. We put kids who can catch in the outfield and we’ve won some games with good catches.”

One of the team’s strengths this year has been pitching. Lake Forest has five solid pitchers to make Hofkins’ job easier. 

“At this level, a good pitcher is one who can throw strikes,” Hoskins said. “A team usually has one and we have five. We can throw who we want, when we want.”

One of those pitchers is Pierce Grieve, who also catches and plays first base. His baseball career began in the Grieve backyard with his father, and he is thrilled to be pitching at batters instead of into dad’s glove. 

“When I was 5 I threw with my dad. I liked it and got really good,” Grieve said. “I decided to try out and I made the team. You can throw the ball really hard because the catcher wears full gear.”

The Lake Forest 8U team is completely integrated into the LFBA, but it was not always that way. 

“We had a special group of 8-year-olds seven years ago,” said who helped start the 8U team. “Lake Forest (LFBA) would not let kids try out until they were 9.”

Seven years ago, Clamage and Harry Karkazis were not sure what to do when they wanted to find a competitive situation for the group. A league for that group of 8-year-olds did not exist, and the LFBA did not let younger boys play in the 9U division. 

“No one ever started their own program so we weren’t sure what to do,” Clamage said. “We had to play against 9-year-olds in Buffalo Grove. They (the Scouts) held their own, had a lot of fun and are strong friends today.” 

That group did more than hold its own. It finished the year with more wins than losses, according to Clamage, and took third place in a 9-year-old tournament in Deerfield. 

When Clamage and Karkazis began the first 8U squad, not everyone in town thought the age group was ready for competitive travel baseball. “Some people still feel it is too young,” longtime local baseball coach Lenny Turelli said. “Nine is a good age to start.” 

Turelli’s four sons played their way through the LFBA program. The oldest, , was a star pitcher for the Lake Forest American Legion team this summer and will be a junior at Lake Forest High School. 

Four years ago, the 8U program first came under the LFBA umbrella and this season it is a full-fledged member, according to Bill Hannekamp, who heads the LFBA. 

The original group now comprises the nucleus of the Lake Forest Blue 14U team, which is in second place in the Lake Shore Feeder Baseball League with a 13-2 record.