Mundelein knocks out Lake Forest in 8 innings
There is no other way to explain it - except perhaps that it's playoff baseball, and every game is very important.
Mundelein sophomore southpaw Brendan Murphy was on pace to give up 18 hits after two innings of Monday's Class 4A regional title game against Lake Forest. And then to add injury to insult, he was injured trying to collar an overthrow.
His split finger didn't look good after that.
And then, just as mysteriously, his pitching improved dramatically. Murphy struck out four in a row at one point.
The third meeting of these NSC Lake Division rivals went to extra innings at the Lake Zurich regional.
Just to make this game even a little wackier, the Mustangs (27-9) scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning without a hit.
Leadoff hitter Luke Peterson reached on a error to open the eighth. He moved to second on a steal and to third after an interference call, and finally came home on Nick Brune's infield bouncer.
Mundelein made it 3 wins this year over Lake Forest with a 6-5 win. The Mustangs meet Warren in a Stevenson sectional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
"I felt fine early on,'' Murphy said. "But I lost my grip on my change. So I just started hitting my spots. I knew the situation but I was really calm."
Mundelein coach Todd Parola noted it was an unusual game but he will take it.
"It was a crazy game,'' Parola said. "There was some crazy defense. But our kids are out of school. Our seniors have been done for three weeks. All I ask of them is to come out for a couple of hours and compete. And they did that."
Lake Forest (24-9) had an early double from designated hitter Mark Turelli, but Murphy escaped without any runs scoring.
Lake Forest wasn't as lucky. The first four Mustangs hitters reached base in the opening frame. Nick Brune had the game's first RBI on a single through the left side. Zach Zagula had another hit. Three runs crossed but the Mustangs lost chances at a bigger inning with some questionable base running.
The Scouts did not back down against the hard-throwing Murphy. Four more singles highlighted a 3-run, game-tying second inning.
"We had a chance to break it open there,'' said Lake Forest coach, Ray Del Fava. "But by the fourth inning, he (Murphy) had shut us down. He had a lot of strikeouts. He threw very well."
Murphy's strikeout binge began in the third. Only Cal Kropke made contact in that inning, drilling a shot back to pitching mound. Murphy made a catch in self-defense, and looked good doing it.
"I saw it at the last second,'' Murphy said.
With Murphy settling down, the Mustangs took the lead back with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth after a pair of throwing errors. Cooper Michalski had the lone hit of the frame, an infield dribbler, but again a key Lake Forest error put the Mustangs ahead.
Then neither team could threaten until the Lake Forest seventh. Turelli had his second two-bagger of the day, which drove in a run. Mundelein committed 2 errors in the frame and the game went to extra innings.
Del Fava was glad to see his team compete.
"I had the greatest group of seniors,'' he said. "I'm going to miss them to death. I hope they don't remember this game but the friendships they made."