Baseball: Tasty results for Giusti clan, Prospect and Fremd

It would have been interesting Monday night to listen in on the debate around the Giusti family dinner about who'd had a better day.

Ross Giusti, who is the head coach at Prospect, watched as his Knights defeated Schaumburg 5-1 to clinch at least a tie for the Mid-Suburban East title.

Meanwhile in Buffalo Grove, Ross' son Connor, who plays for Fremd, had 3 hits, a walk, 2 RBI and a huge run scored to help his team best Buffalo Grove 8-4. That Fremd victory knocked Buffalo Grove out of the tie for the East lead and gave Connor's dad's team the MSL East title outright.

"I play for Fremd always," said Connor Giusti, a sophomore. "It felt good to be able to contribute for my team. It is going to be a very weird dinner at home."

Ross Giusti is simply happy his son is playing so well.

"I am really proud of him," Giusti said. "He is learning a lot playing as sophomore.

"There is always something to look forward to when I get home. I am glad he stepped up and was able to contribute."

Fremd (16-14, 10-6) had plenty of contributors. The Vikes took the lead in the top of the first half by batting around.

Zach Goodman doubled to center, scoring Tommy Wingen and Luke Seidel. After Fremd loaded the bases, Connor Giusti walked to score Goodman.

"I was seeing the ball well today" Goodman said. "Luckily we had guys in scoring position and I was able to capitalize on that."

Eric Bennes, who stymied the Bison from the mound for the first 3 innings, had success at the plate as well. His second single of the day drove home Goodman, who'd had his second double of the game to make it 4-0.

"It was a really good game for us," Bennes said. "I am proud of our team. I am looking forward to us playing like this in the playoffs."

Giusti then made sure he would help the cause. The sophomore singled up the middle to drive home courtesy runner Mark Bechtold to make it 5-0.

Buffalo Grove (24-4-1, 12-4) climbed back into the game in the fourth with 3 consecutive extra-base hits.

John Carpinelli doubled to lead off the inning and scored on Riley Rundquist's homer to left. Mac Camardo doubled down the left field line and scored Chase on Marsh's single to make it 5-3, but Bennes settled down and got out of the jam as the Bison left runners on second and third.

Fremd had another opportunity to break the game open when it loaded the bases with no outs.

Rundquist made a great play at third and threw home to his brother, Tyler. The catcher stepped on home and then fired to first for a double play. After a walk, the next batter fanned. It was the third time that the Vikings left the bases loaded to end an inning.

Buffalo Grove closed to with 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth and had an opportunity for more.

Rundquist tripled and scored on Camardo's single, and the Bison then loaded the bases. It was Buffalo Grove's turn to leave the bases loaded as Fremd was able to get out of the jam.

It was Giusti again who made a huge play on the basepaths to give Fremd some breathing room.

After Fremd center fielder Alec Honickel made a fantastic catch in center field, Giusti led off the seventh with a single. He then went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Tom Cermak.

With two outs, Wingen hit a smash that bounced off an infielder. Giusti came around third, hesitated for a second and then broke for home, just beating the throw. Seidel then belted a 2-run homer to give Fremd some breathing room.

"We came out and some really good at bats early in the game," Fremd coach Chris Piggott said. "Everything depends on us having good at-bats to start a game."

Buffalo Grove coach Tim Miller was disappointed that his team missed its opportunity to share for the East title. But he's still pleased they have the No. 1 seed in the state playoffs in the Mundelein sectional.

"We eliminated ourselves," Miller said. "We had the opportunity to share it. We made plenty of mistakes out there.

"But we are still a number 1 seed. We just have to clean up some things."

In Prospect's win, it was mainly a case of senior Ben Courtney excelling once again.

Courtney threw a complete-game 4-hitter against visiting Schaumburg, striking out five, walking none and allowing 4 hits (all singles).

And he accomplished all that with just 74 pitches, meaning he'll be available for Friday's 4:30 p.m. MSL championship game against visiting Barrington.

Prospect scored one in the second and once in the third and led 2-1 through the fifth inning.

In the sixth, Ryan Roggeman singled and later scored on Anthony Catalano's homer to give Prospect (17-9) some breathing room.

Nick DeCapri had an RBI single early in the game and also had a sacrifice fly in the Knights' 3-run sixth.

Prospect tied for the MSL East title in 2015 but lost the opportunity to play in the title game due to tiebreaker criterion. Their program's last appearance in the championship was 2011.

It will be the fifth MSL title game appearance for a Giusti-coached team.

"It's great," he said. "The kids, I'm very proud of them. They stuck their nose in it all year.

"We got off to a good start by beating Elk Grove by 1 run twice, earlier in the season. Once our bats got started, we were OK."