Fremd 6, Schaumburg 3
There was no sugarcoating what Fremd junior Kyle Bahnick was facing in his first varsity pitching start.
Waiting for the right-handed Bahnick was defending Mid-Suburban League champ Schaumburg and its high-powered offense averaging 11 runs a game.
"They're a great hitting team," Bahnick said. "When I came out to start the game coach (Chris) Piggott said it's like pitching to the Yankees."
When Bahnick and junior lefty Matt Johnsen were finished they had limited the Saxons to 3 hits Thursday.
And visiting Fremd pulled out a dramatic 6-3 MSL West win on Sean Freed's bases-clearing double with one out in the seventh inning.
"The main thing is we had an off game (Wednesday)," Freed said of blowing a 5-run seventh-inning lead in a 13-12 loss at Barrington. "We really came back and told ourselves to put it behind us."
Which the Vikings (5-2, 2-1) did with a 12-hit attack and clutch pitching and defense. Bahnick wasn't his sharpest as he gave up 5 walks and hit 2 batters.
Kyle Pusateri's homer in the second inning gave Schaumburg (7-2, 3-1) a 2-0 lead. But Bahnick limited the damage the first three innings to RBI groundouts by Mike and Matt Mistrata.
"I didn't have my best stuff … but I kept us in the game and kept them off-balance," Bahnick said.
"The biggest thing about Kyle is he's a competitor," Piggott said. "He competes every time on the mound. If something goes wrong, he never lets that affect the next pitch."
Fremd took a 3-2 lead in the third on a single by Mike Tauchman (2-for-4), an RBI double by Ryan Shober (2-for-4) and a 2-run single by hot-hitting Jason Ford (2-for-4) off George Kalousek.
Shober kept the game tied at 3-3 in the fourth.
The Valparaiso-bound shortstop couldn't make an over-the-shoulder catch on Dominick D'Agata's looping single. But Shober got the ball on a bounce and made a perfect, off-balance, one-hop throw to catcher Tyler Gregory to nail Alec Fontanez.
Schaumburg had runners on base in every inning but the seventh. Bahnick came out after an error to start the sixth but Johnsen stranded a runner at second with a flyout and strikeout.
"We took ourselves out of a few opportunities to go ahead," said Schaumburg coach Paul Groot. "They hit the ball well. Their top four, I was impressed with the way they swing the bats."
And the Vikings had No. 2 hitting Shober to start the seventh after Pusateri came in to get out of a sixth-inning jam. Shober just beat out a grounder to a diving Fontanez at third base.
Ford lined a one-out single to right and Anthony Concialdi bunted for a hit. The right-handed Freed then took a close 1-2 pitch and lined the next one just out of the reach of diving right fielder Dan Launhardt to clear the bases.
"I love being in that situation and it felt good," Freed said. "I was saying, 'slice, slice, slice.' It felt great to get our team a win today."
Johnsen finished off his victory by retiring the Saxons' 2-3-4 hitters in order.
"That took a lot of pressure off me there," Johnsen said of Freed's hit. "Kyle pitched a good game and I didn't want to let him down."
Maine W. 8, Glenbrook N. 7: Lucas Udischas, Tommy Ross and Mike Santa Maria each had 2 hits as Maine West (6-2, 3-2) rallied for the Central Suburban North win with 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Defending division champion Glenbrook North took a 7-5 lead with 3 runs in the top of the sixth. Santa Maria got the win in relief.
Meadows 6, Stevenson 4: Pat Conlin minimized the damage to 2 runs in a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the sixth for Meadows (4-4) to save the nonconference win for Ted Metzger.
Kevin Serna was 2-for-4 with an RBI as the Mustangs went ahead to stay with a 4-run second.
BG 10, St. Viator 5: J.P. Kulick was 2-for-2 with 3 RBI, Zach Borenstein was 3-for-4 with a double and Matt Stadler and Evan Kander went 2-for-4 for Buffalo Grove (5-3) in the nonconference win. The Bison had a 13-6 hit advantage on St. Viator (8-4).
Conant 8, St. Charles E. 5: Derek Wojcik homered and Tim Shannon drove in 4 runs for Conant (4-4) in the nonconference road win.
Leyden 4, York 3: Tim Mackey's RBI single in the bottom of the seventh gave Leyden (7-2) the West Suburban Conference crossover victory.
Jeremy Stawychny's double set up the winning run as Leyden improved to 3-0 this season and 13-4 the last two in 1-run games. Mackey also got the victory with an inning of relief of Ricky Zapata, who had 6 strikeouts in 6 innings.