McHenry strikes back, hands Mundelein rare loss
McHenry struck, sneakily, and then Mundelein’s strike-throwing machine fired a strike.
From right field.
Mitch Schulewitz’s defensive gem ended the bottom of the fifth, keeping McHenry off the scoreboard, but the Warriors’ five-run outburst an inning earlier provided ample impetus for the hosts. McHenry handed 20-game winner Mundelein just its second loss of the season Saturday night, capturing a 7-3 decision under the lights at Petersen Park.
Warriors junior Cody Freund, a three-year varsity player who normally catches, settled down after allowing 5 hits and 3 runs in the first three innings to throw a complete-game 6-hitter. His 3-strikeout, 2-walk effort helped McHenry (16-10) snap a four-game losing streak.
Freund retired 13 straight batters before issuing a two-out walk to Zach Osisek in the seventh. Thomas Gandolfi’s single kept Mundelein’s hopes alive, but Freund retired Will Farmer on a lineout to deep left field to end it.
“He competes,” McHenry coach Brian Rockweiler said of Freund.
“Their pitcher did a pretty good job,” Schulewitz said. “He got ahead early in the count. He did it all game, which helped him.”
Mundelein starting pitcher Adam Turner had a no-hitter and 3-0 lead through three innings. He retired the first batter he faced in the fourth, but never recorded another out after that. Turner issued a walk and hit a batter, before Freund touched him for an RBI single. After another walk, errant pickoff throw, two more hit batsmen and a pair of wild pitches, Turner’s night was over.
Enter Mustangs reliever Dillon O’Donoghue with the score tied 3-3. Adam Mattson squared to bunt O’Donoghue’s first pitch, as all three McHenry base runners took off. Mattson’s suicide squeeze bunt was fielded by O’Donoghue, who threw to first base. Jack Glosson scored easily from third, and Payton Lykins never stopped as he rounded third, scoring all the way from second when he beat first baseman Ryan Dolan’s throw home.
It was a rare 2-RBI squeeze bunt. Mattson added a run-scoring single off Schulewitz in the sixth.
“We were watching (O’Donoghue) warm up a little bit and it looked like he was going out of the windup,” Rockweiler said. “The guy that was batting (Mattson) is our best bunter and we told the guys on base, ‘We’re going to go first pitch if he goes to the windup.’ We told the guy on second (Lykins), ‘As soon as (O’Donoghue) takes a step with his left foot, take off, and we’re not stopping you.’ It’s one of those things where if it works, it looks good. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t look so good.”
McHenry threatened again in the fifth, but Schulewitz caught a flyball in right field and threw out McHenry’s runner who had tagged up from third base. Mundelein catcher Logan Reckert caught Schulewitz’s throw on the fly and applied the tag.
“That was a pretty good throw,” said Mundelein coach Todd Parola, who could at least smile about that on an otherwise frustrating night for his team.
Schulewitz, whose pitching record is 7-0, only recently started playing right field on days he wasn’t starting on the mound. It was his first outfield assist.
“I think it’s really the first time I’ve gotten a shot to do that,” Schulewitz said. “It felt pretty good.”
Mundelein (20-2) had built its early lead thanks to sacrifice flies by Reckert and Schulewitz (1-for-2, triple) and Osisek’s RBI double. Luke Adams had a one-out double in the third, but that was the Mustangs’ last hit until Gandolfi’s seventh-inning single.
“We came out and were swinging the bats all right, but that (McHenry fourth) inning just sucked the life out of us,” Parola said. “We never regrouped, for whatever reason. We didn’t deserve to win.”