Baseball: Sanchez slings it as Mundelein rolls by Lake Zurich

Steven Sanchez didn't want his infielders getting bored, after all.

So even on a day when Mundelein's towering junior lefty struck out 14 Lake Zurich batters, he found a way to keep his infielders busy.

"Especially my third baseman (Nick Stricker)," a smiling Sanchez said.

Winds gusting at 40-mph-plus kept knocking Sanchez's cap off his head Wednesday in the two baseball teams' North Suburban Conference finale. Fortunately for Sanchez, his heady teammates kept fielding it and handing it back to their pitcher.

"It's a pretty big hat," said Sanchez, removing it and taking a look inside. "I do need a smaller one."

Sanchez stands 6 feet 7 and weighs 230 pounds, and his talent is equally impressive. The Arkansas commit showcased it in Mundelein's 10-0 win (seven innings), pitching one of his better games of the season.

Mundelein (28-5) finished 16-5 in the NSC, alone in second place behind Libertyville. Lake Zurich (16-18) wound up 7-14 in NSC action.

Sanchez allowed just 2 hits - a two-out single to Ben Cornelius in the first and one-out base hit to Shane Nolan in the sixth - and walked five in 6 innings of work.

"He can bring it sometimes, and he was really good today," said Mundelein catcher Mason Schaller, whose two-out single in the second gave his pitcher the only run he needed. "When he can throw his pitches for strikes, like he's been doing, he makes it easy to catch him."

Sanchez struck out the side in first and fourth innings.

"He's had a couple of good outings, and this was one of them," Mundelein coach Todd Parola said. "It's nice as a coach when you have a kid you can expect something out of when he goes to the mound, and we haven't been able to expect it out of him every game. There's no doubt he's got it in him."

Lake Zurich went into the game short-handed and saw its lineup get even more depleted in the second inning. Shortstop Austin Matuszewski injured his hand as he appeared to collide with left fielder Jason Ims on Stricker's bloop hit into shallow left field.

Matuszewski left the game and left the high school. The junior returned at game's end wearing a cast on his hand.

"He's the heart and soul of our team," Bears coach Rick Erickson said. "We'll do whatever we can to keep his spirits up and keep him part of the team. He's just a bulldog shortstop."

Lake Zurich was already without sophomore star Tyler Snep, who tweaked his hamstring Tuesday at Mundelein, and center fielder Dylan Niedzwiecki, who got hit with a ball in the back of the head in the same game. Third baseman Austin Krause was out with a hip flexor, Erickson said.

"We overcome it by just taking everything pitch by pitch, like our motto all season, and having guys step up and play in big moments," said the junior lefty Cornelius, who started on the mound and went 1-for-1 with 2 walks. "I think everybody on this team is able to do that."

Cornelius pitched 6 innings and left with Mundelein leading 6-0. Jeff Morton had a 2-run triple and an RBI single for Mundelein. Stricker, Brendan Murphy (double) and Schaller (2 RBI) also had a pair of hits each.

Sanchez put two runners on with one out in the sixth, but he reared back to strike out the next two batters swinging to end his day.

"I've been struggling a little bit with my location, but I felt great today," Sanchez said. "Definitely my fastball (was working). I got ahead of a lot of guys, and then I got them off-balance with my curveball."