Bowens, Libertyville move on

Unlike the one his Libertyville American Legion team coughed up Sunday, this lead was safe.

A few weeks back, Joey Bowens heard that Creighton University's tradition-rich baseball program was interested in his talents. Sure enough, it proved true.

When Bowens graduated from Libertyville this summer, the all-area safety/special teams ace was set to play football for Drake University. Then its coaches, including the one who recruited Bowens, left.

"I was still going to go there to play," Bowens said, "but at that point I was just like, I hope something for baseball comes up.' "

After he accepted Creighton's offer, perhaps not coincidentally, Bowens heated up with the baseball bat, going 12-for-12, coach Jim Schurr said.

"It was like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders," Bowens said.

Bowens was feeling relieved again Sunday after helping Libertyville earn a berth in this week's 10th District Final Four at Barrington.

In a pair of games at Lake Forest's West Campus, Libertyville squandered a 7-0 lead against Lake Zurich but pulled out a 9-7 win in eight innings, then eliminated Grayslake 11-0 in six innings.

Libertyville, Deerfield and Mundelein also advanced to the double-elimination Final Four, which starts Wednesday. Mundelein will play Deerfield at 1 p.m., followed by Libertyville vs. Lake Forest at 4:30 p.m. The winners play at 1 p.m. Thursday, followed by the losers at 4:30 p.m.

Against Grayslake on Sunday, Libertyville put up 8 runs in the second inning. The Bandits weren't about to let up, however.

"I said to them in the third (inning), 'Remember about three hours ago, when we were up 7-0 (against Lake Zurich)?' " Schurr said.

Libertyville played the weekend without four of its best players in John Brennan, John Zeffery, Josh Albers and Chase Guarnaccio. The Bandits also didn't have Matt Dittman, who's playing for another high-level team this summer and is available only on Mondays.

"We call him 'Monday Matt,' " Bowens joked.

Brian Whartnaby led Libertyville's 11-hit attack against Lake Zurich on Sunday, going 4-for-5 with 4 RBI. Tim Matheson was 2-for-4 with an RBI triple and 3 runs scored, and Joey Aiello went 2-fort-3 with a 2-run single. Bowens contributed a single, stolen base and 3 runs.

Whartnaby pitched 2 innings in relief of Dan Regel to notch the win. After Lake Zurich tied the game in the bottom of the seventh on Steve Cleary's second double of the game, Libertyville retook the lead in the eighth on a wild pitch that plated Bowens.

Lake Zurich started its rally by scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the fourth thanks to consecutive RBI singles by Scott Stratton, Robert Brant and Tim Nolan and a sacrifice fly by Cory Halicke.

"I knew with our bats that we weren't out of it," said Lake Zurich's Matt Johlie, who pitched 6ˆº innings in relief and kept his team in the game. "I was saying to myself, 'We've come back from deficits like that before this year.' I knew we had to stay focused because we could put up a bunch of runs."

Added LZ's Matt Gilhooly of the comeback: "It's big to do that in a big game here."

After Libertyville survived, the Bandits jumped out to a big lead in their second game as well. Bowens went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles against Grayslake. The first of his doubles plated 2 runs in the Bandits' 8-run second.

Nick Wilcox was 3-for-4 and pitched a complete-game 6-hitter for Libertyville. Willy Caldwell had 2 hits, and Tom Jacobson smacked a 2-run double.

"Everyone played great today," Bowens said.

Libertyville opened the play-downs with a 6-4 win over visiting Vernon Hills last Friday. Troy Barton, an incoming junior for Libertyville, pitched 6ˆ¿ innings with 5 strikeouts for the win.

Win-lose for Lake Zurich: While defending 10th District champ Lake Zurich saw its season end Sunday with a 9-7 loss to Libertyville, coach Dan Grant knows the season isn't over for Bears Baseball.

Lake Zurich is playing in the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association finals this week. The Bears are one of eight teams in the tournament.

Lake Zurich's Legion team played without three starters over the weekend, as Grant elected to save some incoming seniors for the high school summer tournament.

He called Lake Zurich High School coach Gary Simon to tell him his idea.

"I said, 'Gary, doing well in the summer league tournament is going to do so much for the Lake Zurich baseball community,' " Grant said. "For the Lake Zurich American Legion to move up to the (10th District) Final Four is not as important as doing well in the high school tournament, because it trickles down through the whole community."

Lake Zurich's Legion team opened the play-downs Saturday with a 7-1 loss to Waukegan, before beating Gurnee 9-2.

Matt Gilhooly scattered 4 hits against Gurnee, while Joey DeBernardis went 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI.

Against Libertyville on Sunday, Cory Halicke was 3-for-4. DeBernardis and Steve Cleary (2 doubles) each was 2-for-3.

Lake Zurich finished 23-15.

"I didn't have very high expectations for us, but we played real well," said Gilhooly, who's off to Purdue University but is eligible to play a third season of Legion ball next summer. "We did a lot better than I thought we would. A bunch of the younger guys performed very well."

For he's a Johlie good fellow: Lake Zurich's Matt Johlie has toughed it out the last couple of years and has been the consummate team player.

Take Sunday. Johlie pitched 6ˆº effective innings in relief against Libertyville, only to suffer the loss in a 9-7 decision.

Johlie, who Lake Zurich baseball fans know more for his catching prowess, has achy feet due to a rare condition.

"Usually with enough Advil in me I can make it through the week," Johlie said.

The ailment isn't bad enough to keep Johlie off the field, but his feet do flare up.

"It's pretty bothersome, but it's been a year and a half now so you just kind of live with it," he said. "You get pretty used to it."

Johlie just completed his third Legion season. He'll attend Indiana University, but will be young enough to play a fourth season next summer.

Good season for Grayslake: Grayslake finished 15-13-1 in its first season under Bob Yarbrough.

Grayslake defeated Barrington 9-1 at Grayslake North on Saturday, before losing to Mundelein 4-3 and Libertyville 11-0 on Sunday.

"I feel like (the season) was successful," Yarbrough said.

Against Barrington, Steve Kuligowski had a 2-RBI single and Shawn Tobie blasted a 2-run homer. Illinois Wesleyan-bound Pat Garvey also had 2 RBI.

Micah Yarbrough (6-1) and Jim Fracek combined to hold Barrington to just 5 hits.

Kuligowski (3-2) struck out 13 batters against Mundelein. Trevor Popp and Clay Henricksen had 2 hits each. Henricksen, Bobby Lyne, and Garvey each doubled.

Against Libertyville, Fracek and Nate Gomez each had 2 hits.