Baseball: Buffalo Grove's big hits sink Hersey

Mac Camardo restored order for Buffalo Grove's baseball team, and then John Carpinelli gave the Bison a comfort zone on Wednesday.

The pair belted home runs and Zack Fricke pitched 6 strong innings as top-seeded Buffalo Grove topped Hersey 9-3 at the Buffalo Grove Class 4A regional.

Hersey's elimination marked the end of a superb head coaching career for Bob Huber, who retired after 24 seasons at the helm for the Huskies.

Buffalo Grove (28-4-1) will play in Saturday's regional title game at 11 a.m. The Bison will play the winner of Thursday's Palatine-Grayslake North game, which has been moved to a 3:30 p.m. start time.

Hersey (9-22) had Buffalo Grove squirming early.

The Huskies, who were one of four teams to defeat the Bison this season, pushed over a run in the top of the first. Tom Barnes, who had walked, came home on a Buffalo Grove infield error as Hersey took a 1-0 lead.

Camardo got the Bison off the deck in the bottom of the first.

With runners on first and second, Camardo, who is lefty, went opposite field for a towering home run and suddenly it was 3-1 Bison.

"It was middle-out," Camardo said. "I think it definitely changed the momentum."

Buffalo Grove coach Tim Miller said Camardo's homer had a calming effect on his team.

"Carmado's hit settled the nerves a little bit," Miller said. "It really relaxed us and we just took care of business from there. We fell back into our relaxed state, and we play our best baseball when we are like that."

If Camardo's homer relaxed the Bison, Carpinelli's blast turned the dugout into pure euphoria.

With a runner on and two outs, Carpinelli drilled a shot to right. Despite the stiff breeze, Carpinelli's ball landed high in a clump of pine trees beyond the right-field fence to give Buffalo Grove a 5-1 lead.

"Off the bat, I really wasn't expecting much," said Carpinelli, who has 4 home runs this spring. "I was thinking about getting to second base. But as soon as it went over, my stomach just dropped."

Miller said it gave his team some needed breathing room.

"(Zach) Fricke is a pretty good pitcher," Miller said. "And we feel that with him or our staff in general, we can lock it down with a 4-run lead."

Fricke said that those home runs made it easier for him to be on the mound.

"Nothing is better than pitching with a lead," said Miller, who threw 86 pitches and allowed 5 hits. "There is lots of confidence out there and no worries."

Fricke's teammates gave him even less to be concerned about when they scored 4 runs in the fifth inning, sending 10 batters to the plate. Leo Rule, who had 3 hits, delivered the big blow with a 2-run double as The Bison opened up a 9-1 lead.

"It was a good night," Rule said. "We came out here ready to go. We knew we couldn't take them lightly and we played a pretty good game."

Hersey made things interesting in the seventh, when Barnes hit a 2-run homer and Cade O'Neal followed with a single. Jack Vesalaney, who came on in relief in the seventh, settled down from there, getting the final 3 outs.

Huber, who watched from the third-base coach's box when the final out occurred, was pleased his players didn't quit.

"A couple more guys on base and you never know," Huber said. "This is a great group, all year. They were fun and never stopped working hard."

Huber says he looks forward to watching Hersey in the seasons ahead.

"The future is going to be good here," Huber said. "Wally (Brownley) is going to do a great job here. There is a lot of good young talent in the next couple of years - they will be right in the thick of it."