Carrasco connects as Mundelein rolls
Luis Carrasco can crack a baseball. Far.
Like he did at Lake Zurich Tuesday, when he nearly hit a pitch into Lake Zurich’s football stadium.
Carrasco cracked 5 home runs last season, but through Mundelein’s first eight games this season the senior slugger had as many homers as the Mustangs had losses.
Zero.
Then came Tuesday. Carrasco nearly tripled his home run total, settling for one and 2 long doubles, as Mundelein improved to 9-0 by pounding host Lake Zurich 9-1 in the North Suburban Lake Division opener for both teams.
“It seems like he can just roll out of bed and hit,” winning pitcher Ben Mahar said of Carrasco. “Everybody hit the ball well.”
Carrasco, Mundelein’s RBI last season, hit the ball better than anyone.
“It was a good feeling,” Carrasco said after going 3-for-3 with 3 RBI. “I felt great. I was just getting contact on the ball, seeing the ball better.”
Carrasco displayed power to all fields, homering to center in the first, smashing a double off the right-field fence in the third and doubling off the base of the left-field fence in the fifth. He walked in the sixth.
“I like using the whole field, I guess,” Carrasco said.
Nik Gastfield and Chris Langlie also homered for Mundelein, with both players taking the ball out the opposite way, to right. Gastfield hit a solo shot leading off the second, while Langlie went deep with Bill McMahon aboard in a 4-run sixth.
Everyone in Mundelein’s batting order had at least 1 hit. The Mustangs had 13, in total.
“This ballpark, it’s a short right field and, fortunately, we got guys who use the whole field,” said Mundelein coach Todd Parola, whose team hosts Lake Zurich today. “We hit it in the right spot today.”
Carrasco got the scoring going in the first inning with his long homer to center, after John DeVito singled with two out off Lake Zurich righty Mike Lutz. Lutz, who earned a complete-game win on the Bears’ Spring Break trip to Branson, Mo., last week, lasted 4 innings, allowing 7 hits and 4 runs (all earned).
“These guys hit Lutz better than I’ve seen anybody hit him so far,” Lake Zurich coach Gary Simon said.
The Valparaiso-bound Mahar went the distance on the mound for Mundelein, throwing more than 100 pitches in improving to 4-0.
“It was good to see him extend,” Parola said. “He had thrown 80 (pitches last week) and now up to 100, so that’s good to see.”
Parker Asmann doubled twice for Lake Zurich (2-5), driving in the Bears’ lone run in the third, and Zach Till also doubled. But Mahar allowed only 3 other hits (all singles). He struck out four, including the side in the fifth, walked one and hit a batter.
“It wasn’t dominant,” Mahar said of his performance. “My infielders really picked me up. I just tried to throw the ball down in the zone, and they made every play.”
John DeVito and Langlie each had 2 hits for Mundelein, while Chris Maranto added an RBI double in the third to make it 4-0.
Asmann and Mark Dorfman both went 2-for-3 for Lake Zurich, which committed 5 errors.
“We’ve been playing better than we did tonight,” Simon said.