Baseball: McHenry gets past Dundee-Crown
Dundee-Crown junior left-hander Erik Hedmark pitched well.
McHenry's duo of Mike Lasiewicz and Dylan Honkala were a little better.
Lasiewicz, with 97 pitches, tossed 6 innings to earn the win while Honkala threw a perfect seventh to register a save as the host Warriors nipped the visiting Chargers 4-2 in Fox Valley Conference baseball action at McHenry's Petersen Park Thursday afternoon.
"I thought we had good approaches at the plate against both pitchers," said D-C coach Matt Mueller. 'We manufactured a couple of runs but Lasiewicz is a very good pitcher and their closer (Honkala) throws hard and is very tough to pick up at the plate. It was a very good effort by our guys. We fell a little short.
"I was very proud of the way Erik pitched. They found some holes and had a few bloops fall."
In 6 innings, Lasiewicz struck out 5 without allowing a walk while giving up 2 runs and scattering 7 hits.
Honkala struck out 1 in the seventh to earn the save.
"Las pitched very well and we thought about letting him pitch in the seventh and get a complete game," said McHenry coach Brian Rockweiler. "Dylan has been our closer all year and he gives opponents a different look with an unorthodox motion. He was throwing hard and throwing strikes."
D-C (9-12, 6-11) dented the scoreboard with a run in the first inning. Scott Wojcik led off the game with a single, stole second and eventually scored on an infield ground out by Jonathan Mays.
The Warriors (15-6, 10-4) touched Hedmark for 2 in the second keyed by a run-scoring single by Brenden LoPresti.
McHenry, which didn't commit an error in the game, scored a pair of insurance runs in the fifth courtesy of RBI singles by Honkala and Nick Finley.
In the sixth, Hedmark helped his own cause with an RBI single. Hedmark and Wojcik collected 2 hits each for the Chargers.
"I liked the way we battled all game," said Mueller. "We had some chances, McHenry is a very good team and they were a little better today."
Hedmark, throwing 6 innings, gave up 4 runs with 10 hits while striking out 8 with 2 walks.
LoPresti, Finley and Honkala delivered 2 hits each for the winners.
"I liked our aggressive approach at the plate against a very good pitcher (Hedmark)," said Rockweiler. "We had good at bats up and down the lineup. Our situational hitting was very good. Our pitching and defense have been very good all season. We need to be more consistent at the plate. We took a step in the right direction today."