Palatine makes it worth the wait

Palatine's baseball team showed it can really rake on Monday.

The Pirates spent three hours getting their field ready after rains delayed the original 10 a.m. start.

And when the game commenced, it was Palatine doing a different kind of raking, as the hosts banged out a season-high 15 hits to top Hersey 10-0 in five innings in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs.

"It would be misleading, but not today," said Palatine coach Paul Belo. "We knew they would be predominantly off-speed, and we talked to the kids about it. And they did a great job of following through on it."

When the rain hit just after the national anthem, Palatine's players raced to cover the infield dirt with tarps.

The players, coaches, staff and administrators then worked the fields for a few hours, to get things ready to restart five hours after the scheduled time.

"It was worth the wait," Belo said. "Everyone pitched in and got their hands dirty. It was a tremendous effort on everyone's part to pull together."

Palatine (15-19) will meet top-seeded Glenbrook North at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Palatine.

Palatine took a 1-0 lead over Hersey in the first inning.

Drew Breytenbach, Trace Holloway and Mitch Dolen singled, with Breytenbach scoring on Dolen's single.

It could have been much worse for Hersey (11-21-1) if not for left fielder Max Heeren.

After Palatine's Matt Lamm walked, Heeren kept the Huskies in the game with a leaping catch at the wall to rob Palatine's Zachary Oles of a grand slam. Heeren went on to make two more spectacular catches after that.

But Heeren couldn't stop Palatine from piling on runs in the next two innings.

Breytenbach belted a 2-run homer in the second to score Chris Macahon, who had singled.

"I had some good swings on the baseball," Breytenbach said. "When he threw me a pitch right down the middle I barreled it out."

Nick Orlando followed with a long homer to left in the third inning. He then broke the game open with a 2-run single to score Breytenbach (walk) and Dolen (single) to make it 6-0.

Orlando then raced home on Oles' single as the Pirates built a 7-0 lead after four innings.

Breytenbach picked up his third hit and third RBI in the fifth when he singled to center to score Joey Roy, who had doubled.

Orlando closed out the game with a bases-loaded double for his third hit of the game.

"We have been struggling to score runs but it all came together for us today," said Orlando, who finished with 5 RBI. "I have been struggling lately. But I knew if stuck with what they have been teaching all year I could come through."

Dolen had 3 hits for Palatine while Holoway had 2 hits.

Alex Breytenbach, who is Drew's twin bother, threw five solid innings to pick up the victory.

"I got a lot of support on the field and from the plate," said Alex Breytenbach. "We kept the momentum going on offense and that helped.

Hersey coach Bob Huber said it was a tough way for his team to end the season,

"It was a long wait for nothing," Huber said. "It was a tough way for our seniors to go out."