Baseball: Barrington's Loutos, Wheeling's Maloney excel in openers

Barrington got a terrific start from Ryan Loutos in picking up a 5-1 victory over visiting Prairie Ridge in a nonconference baseball season opener Monday.

Loutos struck out 12 and allowed no hits in his 6 innings. Eric Kozlowski relieved and allowed an unearned run in the seventh.

Will Yorton hit a solo homer for Barrington, which made the most of its 6 hits.

Wheeling 11, Waukegan 0 (6 inn.): Senior pitcher Brian Maloney got Wheeling's season started by tossing a 6-inning no-hitter at Heritage Park in nonconference play.

Maloney struck out 10 and walked two while tossing 79 pitches (51 strikes) in his no-hitter, which is the third in program history.

"I knew if I went out and threw strikes my teammates would pick me up at the plate and in the field, and they delivered," Maloney said. "Great team win."

The support at the plate was led by senior outfielder Johnny Kappel, who finished 3-for-4 and drove in 5 runs. His RBI came on singles in the fourth and fifth innings and a triple in the sixth.

Other big producers for the Wildcats included Andy Shover (double, 2 RBI), Bryan Niznik (2 hits, 2 RBI) and Drew Roberts (2 hits, run).

Elk Grove 4, Bartlett 0: Xander Rojahn (5 innings, 3 hits, 8 strikeouts) and reliever Joe Leone (2 inning, 2 hits, 3 strikeouts) combined to toss a shutout as the host Grenadiers won a nonconference season opener.

Ryne Singsank hit a 2-run homer in the second inning for Elk Grove, and Ryan Uehara (double) and Tyler Selvig also drove in runs.

Steinmetz 9, Christian Liberty Academy 5: Sophomore Nathan Stenzel and junior Ben Law had doubles, but the Chargers couldn't overcome 4 errors in a nonconference loss.

Schaumburg 4, Elgin 0: Senior Kolby Miller earned the decision as the host Saxons started their season with a nonconference victory.

Tyler Fredrickson's double was among the 4 hits for Schaumburg.

St. Viator 4, LaSalle-Peru 3 (8 inn.): Casey Kmet drove in the decisive run with a double in the bottom of the eighth inning as the host Lions started their season with a nonconference victory.

Lions starter Bobby Perna allowed 2 unearned runs on no hits and 5 strikeouts over 3⅔ innings.

Cole Kmet got St. Viator's bats started with a 2-run homer in the first inning. He also had a double.

Casey Pulikowski followed Sean McAteer in relief and got the victory by tossing 2 scoreless innings.

Crystal Lake South 3, Palatine 2: The Gators pushed a run across in the bottom of the seventh inning to come away with a nonconference season-opening win against the Pirates.

Josh Stitt had 2 hits and drove in a run for Palatine, and J.T. Streepy drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Pirates starter Jack Grochowski allowed 2 hits and 2 unearned runs over 4 innings.

Mundelein 8, Rolling Meadows 2 (6 inn.): In a matchup of Mustangs, the northerly team prevailed in a game that was called due to darkness after 6 innings.

Mundelein starter Brendan Murphy pitched 3 innings but still managed to strike out eight.

Steven Sanchez went 3-for-4 with 2 doubles, and Brett Parola had 1 double for Mundelein.

Host Rolling Meadows had hits from Joe Coen, Marco Perez and Nate Pardini; Coen and Pardini scored the runs.

Dundee-Crown 3, Conant 2: The Cougars briefly tied it by scoring twice in the top of the seventh inning, but the host Chargers won it with a run in the bottom half in a nonconference contest.

Logan Smith and Sam Ryan (2 hits) drove in the runs for Conant.