Hoffman shuts down Schaumburg
Visiting Hoffman Estates snapped a scoreless tie with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning, then the Hawks withstood a bases-loaded Schaumburg rally in the bottom of the inning to earn a 2-0 Mid-Suburban West victory Friday afternoon.
Mike Kiviranta (3-2) was the winning pitcher, working 6 innings and allowing 4 hits with 3 strikeouts and a walk.
Chris Fett (3 hits) led off the seventh for the Hawks (8-9, 4-1) with a single, and Kevin Tednes laid down his third sacrifice bunt of the game to advance Fett to second. Erik Smoy bunted and reached on an error as Fett advanced to third. Zach Demmon delivered a double, driving home Fett. With two outs, Trent Rehusch drove home Smoy with an infield single.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Smoy came on in relief. The Saxons loaded the bases on a pair of errors sandwiched around an infield hit, but Smoy got the final out on a fly to center to earn a save.
Colin Conway collected 2 hits as the Hawks regained sole possession of first place in the division.
Kurt Kempema took the loss for the Saxons (5-9, 1-4), going the distance with 7 strikeouts.
Fremd 3, Conant 2: Clint Terry (4-3) threw a 1-hitter and Fremd (8-6, 3-2) finally broke through with 3 runs in the top of the sixth in the MSL West win at Conant (7-5, 1-4).
Terry allowed his lone hit - an RBI double by Otto Linderman - in a 2-run first. The lefty issued all 3 of his walks as Kyle Gizynski had a sacrifice fly.
The only runner to reach off Terry in the last six innings was on an error.
Conant lefty Paul Warble finished with 10 strikeouts but Fremd sandwiched singles by Sean Stutzman and Zenon Kolakowski around a walk to Matt Koeppen to load the bases to start the sixth. After a strikeout, Mike Risher drove in a run with a groundout and Terry was intentionally walked.
Kevin Ciardiello delivered a 2-run single to left to put Fremd ahead.
Hersey 13, Elk Grove 5: Visiting Hersey brought some smoking bats to Elk Grove. Pounding out 16 hits, the MSL East-leading Huskies captured a 13-5 victory.
Jake Knauss had a homer and a double, as did Dom Biagini for the Huskies (12-3, 4-1). Other hitting stars included winning pitcher Joe Perricone with a home run, Chris Polinski (4-for-5) with 2 doubles, Sean Thompson (3-for-4) with a triple and 2 RBI and Erik Stoltzner with a pair of singles.
The Huskies' Alex Lee helped out defensively with an unassisted double play on a liner up the middle.
For Elk Grove (6-12, 2-3), Don Duschinsky went 2-for-3 with a double and Ryan Daubenspeck doubled. Justin Rambert homered and Justin Kaczynski added 2 singles.
Barrington 5, Palatine 1: Sean Buchholz (3-1) took a shutout into the sixth and a 4-run fifth by host Barrington (10-8, 3-2) broke open the pitchers' duel with Byron Skinner of Palatine (10-8, 3-2) in the MSL West.
Buchholz allowed only 4 hits and had 9 strikeouts in 6 innings and overcame 7 walks. Chris Rogers pitched a scoreless seventh.
Jack Scheffler (2-for-3) had a two-out, 2-run single in the fifth for the Broncos and John O'Connell went 2-for-4. Cody Bobbit was 2-for-3 and drove in Palatine's run.
BG 18, Meadows 13: Host Buffalo Grove outslugged Rolling Meadows to earn an 18-13 triumph in the MSL East.
The Mustangs (5-12, 3-2) scored 5 runs in the top of the first, but the Bison (10-7, 3-2) came right back with 10 runs in the bottom of the first. The inning took an hour to play.
Ryan Nisbet (3-for-5) paced a 14-hit attack for the Bison (10-7, 3-2) by blasting a pair of home runs, his fourth and fifth of the spring. He also had a double and 5 RBI. Steve Pollakov (3-for-5) had a homer, a double and an RBI, Jeremy Salzman had 2 singles, Andrew Van Wazer had a double, single and an RBI and Tommy Ricciardi doubled and drove in 2 runs.
Reliever Joel Cruz pitched 3 innings to earn his first varsity win.
The Mustangs had 16 hits, led by Pat McGinn with 2 homers. Jon Bonell, Kevin Cwynar, Steve Rickerson and Chris Varilek doubled.
Prospect-Wheeling, ppd.: The MSL East rainout was rescheduled to Tuesday.