Elk Grove, Arlington get pitching boosts

Elk Grove’s Ryan Hayes and Arlington’s Andrew Van Wazer have the talent and pitching experience American Legion baseball teams look for in the postseason.

In the last week, both of them showed they are headed in the right direction toward the Cook County tournament at the end of July. Hayes stepped into a tough spot to beat Palatine 5-3 on Monday and Van Wazer went the distance to beat Mount Prospect 2-1 in 8 innings on Saturday.

Hayes, who was at Concordia University this spring, got the last-minute start when Paul Warble suffered some shoulder tightness and no one else was available. Hayes rebounded from three tough-luck starts he lost and rough relief outing the first time the Red Sox played Palatine.

“He threw the ball well and he was on fire all day,” said Elk Grove coach Brian Mucha. “He had been throwing decent but you could tell (Monday) he looked like his old self.”

A quick fifth-inning outburst helped Elk Grove erase a 2-0 deficit and keep Hayes from another tough loss. Doubles by Kevin Hilliard, Thomas Byrne and Jordan Grubb with a walk to Kerry Hickerson produced a 3-2 lead and Matt Brancato followed with a 2-run homer.

Elk Grove beat Mount Prospect 12-0 in 5 innings on Tuesday and heads to the Moline Tournament this weekend along with Arlington.

Van Wazer, who pitched for the University of Chicago this spring, threw a 6-hitter with 2 eighth-inning walks and 5 strikeouts to give himself and Arlington a boost.

“He looked good and he had been struggling,” said Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer. “We dropped his arm down a little bit (three-quarters) and he pitched the way he was last year. He threw better.”

Van Wazer also doubled to lead off the eighth and was awarded the winning run on an interference call at third on Jimmy Barton’s single to right. Prospect disagreed with the call but Meyer thought Van Wazer would have scored anyway on the play.

“It was a good game,” said Meyer, whose team also heads to Moline this weekend. “Everybody has a pretty good club (in Cook County) and it’s going to get down to pitching.”

Mount Prospect gets Moore: Mount Prospect came out of a tough stretch with the tough task of facing Cook County leader Northbrook a week ago. Brad Moore was more than up to it as he threw a 1-hitter in a 3-0 victory.

“You couldn’t ask for anything more and everybody played at the top of their game,” said Prospect coach Tom Krumsee. “I kidded Brad at the end that he had to make it interesting by loading the bases. I was probably a batter away from taking him out but the guys behind him really, really played well.”

Moore allowed his only hit in the middle of the game and finished with 3 strikeouts and 4 walks. Krumsee said the hardest-hit ball was a liner first baseman Josh Koutnik (2-for-3) turned into an inning-ending double play and Phil Papainnou and Jack Warner drove in runs.

“When he was warming up and came to the dugout, Tyler Klicka (backup catcher) walked in and said, ‘Everything is working, his curve, change, slider and fastball,’” Krumsee said of Moore, who was on a Hersey pitching staff with Division I recruits Mike Danielak (Dartmouth) and Trevor Haas (Valparaiso). “At a lot of other high schools Brad would have been a top-two pitcher, that’s how good his stuff is. From pitch one he had everything working and hit his spots. Wherever the pitch was called he was putting it there.”

The strong pitching continued in the 2-1 loss in 8 innings to Arlington where Jeremy Berger threw 5 strong innings and Krumsee liked what he saw of Jordan Fedro in relief.

“I wanted to get Fedro in and he didn’t disappoint me,” Krumsee said. “We had opportunities to win and had the bases loaded with one out (late in the game). Otherwise it was an extremely well-played game by both teams.”

Prospect heads out to the Moline Tournament this weekend.

Northbrook rebounds for Waukegan title: Northbrook hasn’t had many hiccups this summer but a couple of them came in succession in its 3-0 loss to Mount Prospect and a loss in the Waukegan wood-bat tourney opener to Zion.

The Braves quickly found the cure with four straight wins to claim the tourney title and improve to 24-5. They gave up only 12 runs (6 earned) for a tournament ERA of 1.24.

“The weekend was wonderful,” said Northbrook coach Mitch Stewart. “Hopefully we can keep that chemistry going with our team and the attitude and style of play.”

The pitching highlights included John Boidanis striking out eight in 6 innings of a 9-3 win over Wheaton for the title. Ryan Bendewald went 5 innings and Peter Resnick finished up a 4-0 win over Barrington, Henry Erickson allowed 2 unearned runs in the seventh inning of a 6-2 win over Morton Grove and Matt Hart got his second 3-2 win of the summer over Wheaton.

“Hart was outstanding,” Stewart said of the Wheeling graduate and Illinois Wesleyan pitcher’s 4-hitter with 10 strikeouts and no earned runs.

Stewart said Northbrook didn’t hit the way it had most of the summer but got clutch efforts led by Kalvin Thong (3-for-13, 6 RBI) and Boidanis (4 hits, 5 RBI).

“What was really important was how some of the kids’ hits contributed,” said Stewart, whose team also heads to Moline this weekend. “A lot of the kids’ hits were key and we did a pretty good job of stealing bases and moving runners up and around.”

Nice catch for Palatine: Palatine found someone to lighten the catching load on Connor Bieda in a 5-3 loss to Elk Grove on Monday.

Palatine coach Jeff Ryder said Jake Babcock showed he could do more than just be an emergency option even though he hadn’t been behind the plate in a few years.

“He did a fantastic job,” Ryder said. “We have good athletes and they can interchange positions and we have guys come back and they’ve played positions they haven’t played in awhile. Jake still had his catcher’s gear and he slipped it on.”

Ryder also liked what he saw out of Sam Beutler in his start against Elk Grove. Palatine (7-7-1, 3-2-1 Cook County) now heads to the Quad Cities this weekend for the Moline tourney.

“At this point we’re looking at the home stretch and getting ready for County,” Ryder said. “It will be here before we know it.”