Mount Prospect shows it can compete

Mount Prospect has showed it can be a team to reckon with when the Cook County American Legion baseball tournament starts in less than two weeks.

Prospect beat Glenview, went 3-2 and reached the semifinals of the Waukegan tournament and had its Tuesday game with Arlington called because of rain and lightning at 2-2 in the eighth inning.

"They know they have the potential to win any game," said Prospect coach Tom Krumsee. "But we're not deep enough to take an inning off, let alone a game."

That happened Wednesday in a 10-2 loss to Morton Grove as Prospect dropped to 7-10.

"It was just a game where nobody was in it mentally, you could just tell," Krumsee said. "I honestly think we had a tad of a mental letdown after the Arlington game. The intensity level goes up for them, there's no doubt about it."

Prospect's Steve Danielak and Arlington's Brendan King each gave up 4 hits in Tuesday's duel. Dan Hoppel hit a tying 2-run homer in the fifth inning for Prospect.

Hoppel also went the distance to beat Waukegan 11-1 after Danielak beat Glenview 4-1. Ian Hurley threw a complete game to beat Portage Park 4-2 as Dan Kovac had a tiebreaking two-out, 2-run double with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth.

Prospect also beat Lake Forest 14-4 at Waukegan but Krumsee said his team ran out of pitching for an 11-2 semifinal loss. Alex Lee and Sean Thompson have led the offense in the recent surge.

"A lot of people started to hit the ball really well," Krumsee said. "When you score those types of runs you're getting contributions from everybody."

Barrington hopes for repeat: A strong performance in the downstate Bloomington tournament last year propelled Barrington to its first state tourney berth since 1998.

Barrington coach Pat Wire was hoping for a repeat in the four-day tourney which started Thursday. Then it comes home to begin 10th District tournament play Monday.

"What I love about that tourney is we're going to face some amazing competition," Wire said. "It's a matter of can we go on that type of run again."

Wire thinks the pitching is there to do it - especially a bullpen where Sean Buchholz, Brendan Schumacher, Chris Rogers and Logan Kissack all have sub-1.00 ERAs. Rogers had a kneecap pop out of place in last weekend's Evanston tourney but was throwing in the bullpen Wednesday.

"He's one of my favorite kids I've coached," Wire said. "What a tremendous, hard worker."

Lefty Tyler Tureck, who is going to Harper College, threw a 3-hit shutout with 7 strikeouts in a 10-0 win over Racine (Wis.) at Evanston. Barrington also had bizarre 17-16 loss to Deerfield where it blew a 12-0 lead in a game that went only four innings with a time limit.

Barrington has received a nice boost with Paul Rathman moving in at third base and hitting over .400. The middle infield of Jim Cook and David Alameda has been solid.

Wire said Barrington could be seeded from third to sixth for the District tourney. This double-elimination round determines the final four for the following week.

"I just hope we can field the ball," Wire said. "That's our concern."

Keehn outlook for Red Sox: Elk Grove coach Brian Mucha called Andy Keehn "the big guy on the staff right now" after he improved to 3-1 with a 7-3 win at Wilmette in 6 innings Wednesday.

"He pitches well against the better teams - and he's just held our staff together," Mucha said after the Red Sox improved to 12-9 overall and 7-3 in Cook County. "His better pitches are his curveball and changeup and he's locating them and not afraid to throw them behind in the count."

Keehn's only loss was 6-3 in the Moline tournament to champion Terre Haute (Ind.), which Mucha said was loaded with Division I players and prospects.

"He pitched against the best team I've seen since I've been in Legion," Mucha said of a game it trailed 4-3 into the sixth. "I was really happy with how we played."

Elk Grove went 2-3 at Moline as it beat East Moline 6-5 on pinch hitter Ryan Hayes' 2-run single and it beat Northbrook 13-3 behind winner Connor McHugh.

The lack of pitching depth was evident as Galesburg scored 16 runs in the top of the seventh - with only 1 walk and 1 error - for a 26-8 win and Rock Island rallied from a 4-1 deficit for a 15-5 win.

That depth will be tested again with weekend home doubleheaders against Mt. Prospect (noon Saturday) and Palatine (10 a.m. Sunday). A 7:30 p.m. Wednesday game at Arlington ends a stretch of eight games in five days.

Palatine's Jack of all trades: Jack Anderson, who will be a junior at Fremd, has been a nice addition to Palatine. Anderson has been solid on the mound, hit a couple of homers and can play the outfield and anywhere in the infield.

"He's been a big surprise for us," said Palatine coach Jeff Ryder, whose team was 14-7 after Wednesday's 9-6 win over Arlington. "He's kind of done a little bit of everything for us."

Anderson's emergence and the return of Matt Johnsen should help with the loss of UIC's Mike Schoolcraft to Tommy John surgery. Terry gave up 11 hits but had 8 strikeouts to beat Arlington and Sean Stutzman threw a 3-hitter with 12 strikeouts in a 3-0 win at Portage Park.

Palatine went 2-3 at the Moline tourney but Ryder wasn't concerned since he saved his top pitchers for this week's Cook County games. Palatine hosts Wilmette on Saturday and is at Elk Grove for a Sunday doubleheader.

Arlington still up and down: Arlington is still part of the top tier of the Cook County standings and went 3-2 at Moline. But one of the big downers was losing UIC-bound John Coen for possibly a month after he fractured two fingers on a bunt attempt.

Arlington showed some good signs offensively in a 9-6 loss to Palatine after its eight-inning tie with Prospect. Jeremy Salzman, Phil Kerber, Brendan King and Coen, before he got hurt, have all pitched well lately.

"There are signs maybe we're starting to hit a little bit," said Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer. "We're still making key errors and I'd say we're playing better than we were a week-and-a-half ago.

"We have to grow up as a team and we have too many guys who are inconsistent."

Ryan Nisbet has been hot at the plate and Matt Hendricks, Thomas Kellly, Jake Knauss, Kyle Kapka and Steve Pollakov have been hitting well.

Arlington plays Portage Park at 6 p.m. today at St. Viator and has a 10 a.m. Sunday doubleheader with Morton Grove at Maine South.