Baseball: Buffalo Grove speaks up with another win against Prospect

Sure, it's just two games into the Mid-Suburban East baseball season, but Buffalo Grove made a huge statement Wednesday.

For the second time in two days, the Bison were able to knock off Prospect, the defending MSL East champion, 5-3. That win came on the heels of Buffalo Grove's 16-3 win over Prospect on Tuesday.

"It's still early," Buffalo Grove coach Tim Miller said. "But we told our kids that we felt that the MSL East title was going through Prospect. We got them right of the gate and obviously we had a big game yesterday (Tuesday) and had a real big game today. And our kids responded."

Zach Fricke picked up the win with 5 solid innings of pitching.

"I am very confident in our team," said Fricke, who will play at Valparaiso next year. "We just can't take anyone lightly and take our foot off the gas."

Fricke, who helped himself with a homer in the third inning, fanned 5 in his innings pitched.

"I felt pretty good coming into the game," Fricke said. "I felt pretty aggressive out there. It was the best feeling in the world."

Mac Camardo, Buffalo Grove's 6-foot-6 first baseman, put the Bison (7-3, 2-0) up 1-0 in the second with a towering home run that made it 1-0.

"It felt great," Camardo said. "It was zero-zero at the time so it was nice get a good start to the game. I thought it gave us momentum in the game."

Fricke, who got himself out a jam in the fourth by starting a double play to end the inning, finally got touched up by Prospect in the fifth.

Tyler Priessing and Jack Antony each singled. The pair then moved up on a wild pitch and scored when Richie Baczek's looping line drive just eluded Bison center fielder Alex Paul to drive in a pair of runs and tie the game at 2.

Buffalo Grove came right back and scored 2 runs of its own in their half of the fifth. Paul doubled, Sean Jacobs was hit by a pitch and Fricke walked to load the bases with one out.

Prospect had a chance to make it two outs but a foul pop was dropped when two Knight players collided. With new life, TJ Constertina drilled a single to right, scoring a pair of runs to make it 4-2.

"It was a big situation with a tie game," Consertina said. "I knew we had to score there. After I got a second chance, I got a pitch I like and drove it through the right side."

The Bison got some insurance in the sixth when Andy Greenberg doubled home Rio Komatani with a drive off the right field wall to make it 5-3.

Greenberg, who came on in relief in the sixth, then retired the final three Prospect batters, fanning two, to earn the save,

"I was just trying to be aggressive at the plate," Greenberg said. "Then, I knew it was the bottom of their order and I just wanted to attack them with a lot of fastballs and have them put it in play. I knew they pressure was on them."

Prospect coach Ross Giusti said his team came in loose on Wednesday.

"We came out hard and and gave it everything we had," Giusti said. "We have to sew some things up and put ourselves in a position to win these type of games. We just have to play smart baseball. And when you play good teams you can ill afford to give them extra outs and another swing of the bat."

Miller said his team was prepared to play in the MSL East.

"We are playing good ball," Miller said. "We play a tough schedule and it gets us prepared for conference.

Palatine 6, Fremd 0: Senior Evan Daly started for Palatine - and he also finished in Mid-Suburban West baseball at Boomers Stadium.

Daly tossed a complete game 1-hitter, striking out five and walking three to help the Pirates win 6-0.

Palatine (8-6, 1-1) had plenty of support for Daly, as Josh Stitt and Jack Hopper both had 3 hits. Jack Betz doubled and joined TJ Skelnik, Jake Andersen and Mike Nielsen with 1 RBI apiece.

The lone hit from Fremd (5-3, 1-1) came from Tommy Wingen.

Hersey 10, Rolling Meadows 7: The visiting Huskies produced a 5-run rally in the top of the fifth inning in earning a come-from-behind win in MSL East action.

Cristian Rodriguez went 2-for-2 with a double and a walk, Will Adamski also had 2 hits and Hunter Luke tossed the first 5 innings and earned the win for Hersey (4-8-1, 1-1).

Multiple hitters for Rolling Meadows (3-4-1, 1-1) were Jacob Johnson-Wright (3-for-4), Brandon Janowicz (2-for-4) and Matt Lothery.

Barrington 11, Hoffman Estates 1 (6 inn.): The host Broncos got homers and 2 RBI apiece from Clark Elliott and Jake Horcher in rolling past the Hawks.

Mike Owsley also drove in 2 runs and Jake Marion had a double as Barrington produced 12 hits.

Nick Bogaerts started for the Broncos and allowed an earned run over 5 innings; Brad Coble finished up by pitching a scoreless inning.

Dylan Bloom and Logan Willis (2-for-3) both had doubles for Hoffman Estates.

Barrington improved to 5-2-2 overall in winning its MSL West opener.

Wheeling 4, Elk Grove 4 (6 inn.): For a second straight, these two teams weren't able to decide a winner.

Tuesday's matchup, which was suspended with a 7-7 tie after 7 innings, will be completed Thursday at Wheeling.

On Wednesday, the teams played 6 innings and were tied 4-4. They'll try to finish it on Tuesday at Elk Grove.

Both teams had 5 hits, with Wheeling's Kyle Bullock and Elk Grove's Xander Rojahn each driving in 2 runs.

Conant 4, Schaumburg 3: Mason Sykes doubled to drive in the winning run in the top of seventh inning as the visiting Cougars pulled out an MSL West triumph.

Sykes started and allowed 3 runs over 6 innings, and Joe Pavletich pitched a scoreless seventh to earn himself a victory.

Joe Unger doubled and drove in 2 runs, but Schaumburg (2-7, 0-2) was limited to 3 hits.

Conant improved to 4-5-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Leyden 5, Addison Trail 3: Corey Lavallais, Matt Ozanic and Alex Duarte had 2 hits apiece to help the visiting Eagles earn a West Suburban Gold win on the road. Sophomore Jose Solis started and tossed 3⅔ innings, with Ozanic providing hitless relief.

St. Laurence 17, St. Viator 7 (5 inn.): Gage Olszak certainly had a day to remember, finishing with 4-for-4 with 2 homers, a double and 9 RBI to power visiting St. Laurence in nonconference play.

Jack Mahoney finished 3-for-3 at the plate for St. Viator (7-3). Casey Kmet doubled and joined teammates Hunter Johnson and Ryan Stejskal in finishing with 2 hits.