Baseball: Sanchez's swing powers Mundelein

Pitching is Steven Sanchez's thing.

It's why he's a big recruit for the University of Arkansas. And why professional scouts have him on their radar.

The 6-foot-7 lefty can do big things on the mound.

But Sanchez went into his senior season at Mundelein this spring wanting to make an impact everywhere on the field. Not just the mound. So he worked more on his hitting.

And it was his hitting that made the difference on Tuesday at Warren.

Sanchez, who was on the mound on Monday in a loss to Warren, made amends by rolling up 3 hits and 3 RBI in a 10-1 Mundelein win over the host Blue Devils in the second game of the 3-game North Suburban Conference series, which resumes today back in Mundelein.

The victory moves Mundelein to 13-4 overall and 9-2 in the North Suburban Conference.

"That was a good way for me to respond from yesterday," Sanchez said. "I pitched yesterday and it didn't go the way I wanted it to, but today I had a way to bounce back and that's what I was thinking about last night.

"I knew I wouldn't be on the mound so today I knew I had to be a leader and step up (in other ways). I've always loved hitting but I haven't worked on it as much as pitching in the past. But I've been trying to do more (hitting work) and make an impact there, too."

It was a tight game through four innings, with the game tied at 1-1. Both teams scored in the second inning.

But the Mustangs put a big run together in the fifth inning, scoring 4 runs and getting through six batters before Warren tagged them with their first out.

Sanchez drove in a run with a big single.

Mundelein got 5 hits in the inning.

"Steve has a great personality and he's been a great leader," Mundelein coach Randy Lerner said. "Guys look to him to perform and to lead and we're just constantly on him to make sure that his energy is always there because as he goes, we go. If his energy is there, a lot of other guys bring their energy as well.

"The biggest difference (between Tuesday's win over Warren and Monday's loss) was our team energy. We didn't have the same energy yesterday that we did today."

In addition to Sanchez, Jeff Morton, Drew Breitenreiter and Austin Greco all had multiple hits for Mundelein as well.

For Warren, no one had multiple hits. And the Blue Devils also had 4 errors.

"We had a couple of bad errors," Warren senior Evan Hill said. "I feel like in most cases, defense is our strong point but today our defense kind of failed a little bit and we let up a few runs that we shouldn't have."

Warren drops to 11-6 overall and 5-5 in the NSC.

"To have zero returning position players back (from last year), and to be 11-6 right now is still pretty good," Warren coach Clint Smothers said. "The kids are buying into it, but today it kind of got away from us. Against good teams, we can't drop pop flies and things like that. We just didn't play very good defense at all."