Mundelein musters up NSC title
There was no way Mundelein coach Todd Parola was going to quash Thursday's celebration.
But part of him wanted to look away, or at least partially cover his eyes while praying for the best, as his players charged the mound in the wake of a 1-0 win over Lakes for the North Suburban Championship, Mundelein's third in the last four years.
At the bottom of this huge pile of humanity was Mundelein's ace pitcher, sophomore lefty Brendan Murphy, who nearly had a no-hitter and moved his record on the mound to 8-0 with the win.
He tossed his mitt high into the sky and let out a primal scream when he ended the game with a strikeout, his sixth of the game.
Then, chaos ensued, and he was covered up quickly by joyous teammates.
"This group really hasn't celebrated all that much, it's been a low-key group this season, even when we clinched (the NSC Lake Division title) on Monday, they didn't seem too excited. So I didn't want to temper their excitement. We've had a hard time getting them to show it. It's a real quiet group," Parola said. "But I was definitely cringing when (Murphy) was getting jumped on, that's for sure."
Murphy's teammates had good reason to pile on.
He controlled much of the game, keeping the Lakes offense in check. He did not allow a hit until the sixth inning. He would have loved to have gotten the first no-hitter of his varsity career. He got one last year while pitching on the freshman team.
"I wasn't thinking about (the no-hitter) at all," Murphy said. "My goal was to win the conference championship. I mean, (a no-hitter) would have meant something. It would have been nice to have a no-hitter to win it, but I wasn't thinking about it."
It was a good thing for Mundelein (25-8) that Murphy was that close to a no-hitter. Keeping the Lakes offense down was essential since the Mustangs didn't produce much offense themselves.
Mundelein generated only 2 hits and scored its only run in the first inning. Centerfielder Sam Osisek doubled in the Mustangs' second at-bat of the game and then left fielder Cooper Michalski drove him in with a single to left field three batters later.
After that, Lakes pitcher Chase Slota, who led the Eagles to a win over Mundelein during the regular season, shut Mundelein down. The Mustangs got only one other runner on base the rest of the game, on a walk.
"I came out not the way I wanted to, I threw 35 pitches in the first inning," said Slota, who will be pitching at Wabash Community College next year and has been scouted by major league scouts during every one of his starts. He is now 6-3 on the season. "I don't think I was nervous, I just think I tried to overdo it a little. I was maybe too pumped up. But I really re-grouped and felt good about the way I pitched the rest of the game."
Lakes, 20-9 and the Prairie Division champion, put together the beginnings of a rally in the sixth inning, when designated hitter Ben Milewski and shortstop Justin Blasinski got on with singles. But Murphy and the Mundelein defense found a way out of the inning.
"Both pitchers were pretty tough today," Lakes coach Ray Gialo said of Murphy and Slota. "Velocity was good for both of them. They got their off-speed over. I'm glad I didn't have to go up and hit against either one of them today, that's for sure. They (Mundelein) just got a little more done with runners in scoring position than we did. That was the difference."