Nothing funky about Evanston

With Colton Tortorello coming in to pitch the seventh inning, with Brad Medina behind the plate, their Mundelein teammate/scoreboard operator Matt Parssinen played Tone Loc's hip hop "Funky Cold Medina" over the public address system.

It wasn't by coincidence.

"I try to have fun," Parssinen said.

Mundelein's execution on the field wasn't as good.

Evanston was anything but funky Saturday in putting on a display that suggested it could be one of the best teams in the state this spring.

The visiting Wildkits defeated the previously undefeated Mustangs 17-4, pounding out 20 hits, including 3 home runs, against five pitchers.

"I heard they were good hitters, but I didn't expect that good," Mundelein starting pitcher Jay Mueller said. "It was really surprising."

Evanston (5-2) just returned from playing in the National Grand Slam Baseball Tournament in West Boca Raton, Fla., where it split four games. One of the Wildkits' losses was a 4-3 decision to West Boca, which is ranked 10th in the nation. The other defeat was 2-0 to American Heritage-Delray (Fla.), which entered the tourney 16-0.

"It helped us," Evanston coach Frank Consiglio said. "The level of focus and intensity you need out in that tournament, you're not going to match it here in April."

Mundelein (5-1) had only 4 hits, including doubles by Kevin Barber and Tortorello (2-for-4), and its pitchers walked five batters and hit four.

After the game, however, Mustangs coach Todd Parola said he was more concerned about veteran pitcher Justin Piasecki, who was about to pitch the JV game.

Piasecki, who went 6-1 last season, tore the meniscus in his knee during practice about a month ago and underwent surgery to repair the damage.

"The biggest thing I'm worried about is seeing if he's healthy," Parola said. "We thought he was out for the year. So just to see him warming up out there (in the bullpen area) makes me very happy."

Mueller had a 1-0 lead after three innings, but he walked the first two batters in the fourth. He then went 3-2 on designated hitter Ross Donnan.

On the next pitch, Donnan deposited a letter-high fastball over the fence in left field.

"It was inside, but he just turned on it and took it out," said Mueller, who was done on the mound after Donnan's dinger.

"I thought Jay pitched pretty good early on," Parola said. "He mixed speeds."

Evanston's bats were just getting started. The Wildkits added 5 runs in the fourth, a pair in the sixth and 7 more in the seventh.

Northwestern-bound Zach Morton led the attack by going 4-for-6 with a double, and he also pitched 3 effective innings in relief of starter Matt Rupert. David Baskin went 3-for-4 with a double, and John Wagner was 3-for-5 with a 2-run homer.

Evanston got 2 hits apiece from Nathan Hobbs, Donnan (RBI double), Nick Boyer (2-run single) and Ashok Freitas (2-run homer, 2-RBI single). Tracy Francis contributed a pinch single to drive in two runs.

"This is what we expect to do," said Consiglio, who starts nine seniors. "Our strength is our hitting, but we do have a deep pitching staff."