Mundelein springs to life

No wonder the Mundelein baseball team went 4-0 over its spring break trip down in southern Illinois.

Right before the Mustangs left town, they got some very good news.

Veteran pitcher Justin Piasecki had been cleared by his doctors to begin playing again after a preseason surgery for a torn meniscus ligament in his knee.

He had injured the knee in a preseason practice.

Mundelein coach Todd Parola had said prior to the season that Piasecki could be out a minimum of four to six weeks and much longer if the surgery didn't take well.

Well, let's just say that it took very well. Very, very well. It also helped that Piasecki's injury wasn't as bad as doctors had initially feared.

That made Piasecki ready for action about a month after surgery. His first game was in Mundelein's big win over highly touted Prairie Ridge on Monday.

He played first base and batted from the clean-up spot.

"It was such a nice surprise hearing that (Piasecki) would be back so soon," Parola said. "He's one of our leaders in all phases, so it's nice to have him back."

Parola says that Piasecki was champing at the bit to return to action. He did whatever he could to stay on track -- even when he was supposed to stay off his feet.

"He would throw even when he was sitting down in a chair," Parola said. "He was like a caged animal. He just wanted to do whatever he could. Now, he feels great and is ready to play."

As of Tuesday, Piasecki had not yet pitched but had gotten work in a couple of bullpens and in a junior varsity game. Parola was optimistic Piasecki would be on the mound within the week.

Nice start: Kudos to Mundelein pitcher Ian McDermott.

The junior made his first varsity start during Mundelein's Spring Break trip down in southern Illinois and set the bar pretty high for himself by throwing a no-hitter.

He went the distance in a five-inning, 10-5 victory over Fenton.

"It was kind of neat that he got a no-hitter the first time he goes out there," Mundelein coach Todd Parola said. "We haven't had a lot of no-hitters anyway. That was neat, too."

Fantastic field: While in southern Illinois, Mundelein got a taste of synthetic turf.

And the Mustangs left hungry for more.

They played one of their games at a minor league stadium called Rent One Park in Marion where the entire field, including the infield dirt, was made of a synthetic turf.

"The kids really loved it, and it would be so nice with the weather up here to have something like that," Mundelein coach Todd Parola said. "The only thing that took some getting used to was that you slide on it so easily. When you're trying to slide for a base, you could end up sliding right by it. Before the game, we had to practice our slides (in the outfield)."

Big win: So how did Mundelein pull off one of the biggest upsets of this young season in its win on Monday over Prairie Ridge, a team that is regarded as one of the best in the state, as well as the nation?

A solid outing by pitcher Eric Rohe was big. Offensive balance was even bigger.

The Mustangs got especially big games from Jack Walliser and Jay Mueller, who both had clutch doubles that brought in runs. But they also got important contributions from just about everyone else.

Mundelein coach Todd Parola said that everyone in the lineup that night got at least one hit.

"That's what it's going to take for us to win this year, getting everyone involved," Parola said. "We don't have the big hitter so we're going to have to string hits together and it's going to take eight or nine guys doing that. It was good to see that we could do that against such a great team."

Parola said a victory against a team like Prairie Ridge was just what his team needed.

"We had just played Evanston a couple of days earlier and lost and weren't feeling really good about ourselves," Parola said. "The Prairie Ridge game was a nice win for us. That team is ranked in the state and I think nationally, too. And we needed to bounce back to get some momentum again."

Great start: At 3-1 as of Tuesday, Wauconda was off to one of its best starts in head coach Bill Sliker's six-year tenure.

The Bulldogs have gotten North Suburban Conference crossover wins against Zion-Benton and Lake Forest.

"We're pretty happy because when you get off to a good start, it definitely builds some confidence," Sliker said. "And you can see that we are gaining that confidence."

Even before the season started, Sliker had quite a bit of confidence in his pitching staff and that's been confirmed for him in these first weeks.

He says Josh Hartnett, Bryce Lahrman and Adam Tagli were all tough in their victories and that even Kyle Tanzillo pitched well in a loss.

"Our pitchers have done a great job of pitching and of keeping games close," Sliker said. "It's been our strength so far this season."

Pitching depth could be Wauconda's strength in the long run.

Sliker says that he has an extraordinarily deep staff and in a season like this one, that could come in particularly handy.

"Because of all the bad weather, most everyone is going to be playing every day for the next three weeks," Sliker said. "It will be tough, but I think we have the pitchers, and enough of them, to do that."

A lot of oopsies: There have been errors, errors and more errors at Grant so far this season.

As of Tuesday, the Bulldogs had played five games but had committed a whopping 17 errors. They were also averaging nearly 5 unearned runs per game.

And yet, somehow, they were 2-3 in those games.

"As badly as we've played defensively, that's the positive," Grant coach Mike Mizwicki said. "We've even had a chance to win the games we've lost. But obviously, we're still very concerned about the errors. Our defense has just been awful."

But Mizwicki also acknowledged that his defense is young.

The Bulldogs lost two veteran infielders to graduation last year in shortstop Anthony Kaskadden and second baseman Jacob Cobb. Both were three-year varsity players who are now on the baseball team at College of Lake County.

"I am hoping that this is inexperience, otherwise it's going to be a long year," Mizwicki said. "Maybe we're not putting the guys in the right spots, I'm not sure. I just hope we can get it right because I've never seen defense this bad."

Flip side: While Grant's defense might be "bad," the offense is anything but.

In fact, the offense is quite good.

The Bulldogs had scored 43 runs in their first five games. They had also belted 5 home runs.

Sophomore Jeremy Wiker has been an especially pleasant surprise. He boasts a .700 batting average over 10 at bats.

"We're hitting the ball really, really well and we're scoring, too," Mizwicki said. "But I would prefer a little balance, I guess. I wouldn't mind a few less runs if we could just catch the ball."

>Up side:

And so is the fact that, as of Tuesday, the Bulldogs had yet to use their No. 1 or No. 2 pitchers.

Ace Kyle Stroup, who is commanding attention from all kinds of colleges and pro teams, was supposed to pitch last week but was resting a sore arm. And Ryan Thorsen was out of commission for a while and missed his normal spot in the rotation.

"When you look at it that way, we really aren't in that terrible of shape," Grant coach Mike Mizwicki said. "Our other pitchers really didn't have much varsity experience coming into the season, but they've been doing a really great job. Our team earned run average is low, we don't walk many people. We're at about 2 to 1 strikeouts to walks. That's not bad."

Mizwicki said that juniors David Dickinson, Jim Cokefair and sophomore Thomas Gier have held down the fort nicely for Stroup and Thorsen, who are expected to be ready to pitch for their next scheduled start.

"Kyle (Stroup) was just having some pain in his arm and he's very protective of his arm -- as he should be," Mizwicki said. "We just want to make sure he's ready for our first division game."

A lot of oopsies, 2: Just like Grant, Round Lake also seems to have swallowed the error bug.

As of Tuesday, the Panthers were 0-4. But new coach Fred Colon said that every game started off close and then remained close until his team suffered one bad inning of errors that completely turned the tide.

"It's just the one inning that really hurts us," Colon said. "We start strong and all it takes is that one inning. The flood gates open and then it's one mistake after another and then pretty soon a 1-1 game turns into an 8-1 loss."

Colon said Round Lake's recent game against Woodstock was the perfect example of his team's misfortunes.

The Panthers dropped three flyballs in a row.

"At this point, it's very much mental," Colon said. "One guy sees a dropped fly and then thinks too much about not dropping a ball that comes to him, but then he drops it anyway.

"We just need to gain some confidence."

Like every other team in Lake County, the Panthers could also use some outdoor time.

Not practicing in true conditions can make adjusting to game conditions tough.

"You've got to be out there in the field, finding out how the wind blows and how the grass moves," Colon said. "We need to be outside more."

Colon said that his team is already down 12 games because of bad weather.

High hopes: While Round Lake has gotten off to a rough start, Colon is optimistic for the remainder of the season, thanks to a talented pitching staff.

So far, the Panthers have gotten solid performances out of David Ershbock, Tony Milianti and Jeff Nicoline.

"They're all doing a good job of throwing strikes and working the batters," Colon said. "I feel pretty good about the rest of the season. Our guys are just starting to develop and I think they're going to do a lot of nice things."