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Baseball: MSL title game preview is a classic

The prelude was a masterpiece, and now it is on to the main event for Buffalo Grove and Barrington.

The two teams, which are scheduled to battle for the Mid-Suburban League baseball title on Thursday, completed their rain-delayed regular-season game Tuesday with Buffalo Grove holding off host Barrington 2-1.

Both teams will be at it again on Thursday at Barrington, this time with the MSL title at stake.

"It got interesting at the end there," said Buffalo Grove assistant coach Jim Schurr, filling in for head coach Tim Miller, who was attending to some family business. "The kids persevered. We did some things well when we needed to. Thursday should be fun."

Both teams got tremendous pitching from both their starters and relievers.

Barrington got a solid 6 innings from starter Daniel Ensign, and a good inning of relief from Jake Meyer.

Buffalo Grove's Andy Greenberg pitched 6-plus innings before yielding in the bottom of the seventh after a leadoff double. Greenberg allowed just 3 hits, struck out five and at one point retired nine straight.

"Andy really knuckled down," Schurr said. "He went deep in the count a lot, but he never gave in."

Greenberg, senior, improved to 4-1.

"I knew from the first pitch of the game that the umpire gave me something off the plate and that it would be a good day," Greenberg said. "It felt real good to get my team a win and get them some confidence going into Thursday."

But before the Bison (24-5, 15-1), could slide this game into the win column, they had to withstand a final-inning rally by Barrington.

After a leadoff double by David Mitchell, the Broncos (19-6-2, 13-3) had Buffalo Grove bring in TJ Constertina in to pitch. Mike Owsley promptly reached on an error, putting runners on corners with nobody out.

"I live for these kinds of moments," said Constertina, who was the Bison's leading releiver last season before becoming a starter this year. "I was put into that situation a lot last year, so the pressure doesn't bother me."

After a soft pop to third for the first out, Barrington pinch runner Jake Ackard stole second. The Bison walked the next batter to load the bases. Constertina then showed his composure, getting the next two Barrington batters to pop out in the infield to end the game.

"The decision there was to let kids hit," said Barrington assistant coach Nate Gray, filling in for Broncos coach Pat Wire, who was also away on family business. "We just got two infield pop ups, which was disappointing. For our players, this was like championship baseball. It was who could execute certain plays. Hopefully we will have that for Thursday for the big one when we need it."

Tuesday's game actually began Monday but it was suspended after Buffalo Grove batted in the top of the first.

Barrington scored its only run in the third. Johnny Gagne singled and went to second on a throwing error. He then advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Tyler Acosta's deep sacrifice fly.

Buffalo Grove was able to push both of its runs across thanks to a pair of RBI from Mac Camardo.

In the fourth inning, Riley Rundquist led off with a single. He then stole second, went to third on an errant throw and scored on Camardo's groundout.

In the sixth, Constertina was hit by a pitch. He then went from first to third on a wild pitch and scored on Camardo's second hit of the game.

"Hopefully we can keep the momentum going from this game," Camardo said. "I think there a some things we can improve on looking at Thursday. but it should be fun."

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