Baseball: Resiliently, Grayslake Central ousts Wauconda
Class 3A baseball regional host Grayslake Central prevailed 12-9 against Wauconda in a back-and-forth battle Saturday to earn a spot in the Class 3A Lake View sectional.
Top seed Grayslake Central jumped out to a 7-1 lead after the first inning and still held an 8-3 lead heading into the sixth.
Wauconda (12-16-2), the sectional's No. 10 seed, wasn't done - not by a long shot. The Bulldogs scored 6 runs - 4 of them on Dan Sperling's grand slam - to grab a 9-8 lead.
Grayslake Central responded with 4 more of its own in the bottom half to finish the scoring.
In the Rams' finishing rally, Tony Crews, Tony Neuman and Daniel Guckenberger loaded the bases with no outs. Clay Stoffel (2-for-3, 3 RBI) singled up the middle to score the tying run, and Kevin O'Brien then came up with a 2-run single.
Nic Presutti (2 hits, 2 RBI) then drove in the last run with a sacrifice fly.
Stoffel was Grayslake Central's fourth pitcher of the day and tossed the final 1⅔ innngs to earn with win. He allowed no runs on 1 hit and fanned two.
Ryan Meyer had a pair of hits and Camden Janik doubled for Wauconda.
The regional win is Grayslake Central's sixth in the last seven years. The Rams (28-6) meet Prairie Ridge at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kerry Wood Cubs Field in Chicago in a sectional semifinal.
Antioch 8, Lake View 1: In a Class 3A regional final at Woodstock North, the third-seeded Sequoits eliminated No. 6 seed Lake View.
Antioch advances to a 7:30 p.m. Wednesday sectional semifinal against Carmel at Kerry Wood Cubs Field.
Prairie Ridge 6, Lakes 5: The Eagles made a late run but couldn't quite catch the Wolves in Class 3A regional championship action at Lakes.
Fifth-seeded Prairie Ridge led 6-0 after batting in the top of the fifth inning. Lakes scored twice in its half of the fifth and added 3 more in the sixth.
Ryan Selig homered and finished 2-for-3 with 3 RBI for fourth-seeded Lakes, which got a pair of hits from Jason Volpe.
McHenry 9, Grant 5: The Bulldogs held a 5-4 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh, but McHenry produced a 5-run rally to pull away in Class 4A regional final action at Cary-Grove.
Chase Maifield homered, doubled and finished 3-for-4 with 3 RBI for No. 3 seed Grant. Nolan Unger had a pair of hits, and Jacob Splitt doubled for the Bulldogs
Warren 4, Lake Forest 3 (8 inn.): The sixth-seeded Blue Devils outlasted the Scouts in Class 4A regional championship play at Glenbrook North to earn a spot in the St. Viator sectional.
Bradley Vondruska's two-out double in the bottom of the seventh tied it and forced extra innings, and Riley Kocen ended it by driving in Nate Rentas with a one-out double in the eighth.
Jacob Nitch and Rentas also had doubles for Warren (21-11), which meets Buffalo Grove in a 4 p.m. Wednesday sectional semifinal at Viator.
Reese Lawler pitched 3 innings in relief of Kocen to pick up the victory.
Libertyville 5, Stevenson 2: Senior Colin Fields kept Stevenson's bats under control and pitched the North Suburban Conference champs to a regional victory.
Fields struck out nine and allowed 4 hits over 6 innings to earn the win and send the No. 3 seed Wildcats into a 4 p.m. Thursday semifinal against Class 4A sectional host St. Viator.
Libertyville did much of its damage in a 4-run fourth inning, getting an RBI single from Andrew Kim, a sacrifice fly from Tanner Kelly and scoring a couple more runs on errors.
Christopher Farinia and Ryan McElhinny had doubles for seventh-seeded Stevenson (21-14-1).