Rolling Meadows 7, Barrington 5 (10)
Pat Conlin was all set to earn a victory without even throwing a pitch Thursday.
The Rolling Meadows junior pitched the last 3 innings Wednesday of a Mid-Suburban League baseball game suspended after 9 innings because of darkness at Barrington.
Then the Mustangs erupted for 6 runs in the top of the 10th. But that was only the start of the craziness between two teams that combined for 2 runs a day earlier.
Conlin had to bring his weary right arm back in to try and save his own win with the bases loaded and two outs. And on his third pitch, Conlin got leadoff man John Day to ground into a force play in Meadows' 7-5 victory at Kirby Smith Field.
"You're a warrior, Pat," said catcher Ben Sabal, whose bloop double put Meadows ahead to stay in a 10th inning that took 2½ hours.
Meadows coach Jim Lindeman didn't want to use Conlin after he allowed only 1 hit and no walks with 3 strikeouts Wednesday.
But the fourth pitcher of the 10th was the charm as Meadows (8-4, 5-2) won its sixth straight and pulled within a game of East leader Prospect.
"My dad always tells me to be ready when your number is called," said Conlin of his first win-save combination but the second for Meadows this season. "I did what I could do to help us."
Kyle Gaedele started the 10th with a double and took third on a wild pitch. Then came the first of three lightning delays that lasted 90 minutes.
Danny McDonnell relieved Tim Conroy with a 3-1 count and Jon Carlson walked. Sabal's looper to center landed just out of reach of a diving Day.
A 2-run double by Ted Metzger and a 3-run double by Kevin Serna gave Meadows a seemingly safe 7-1 lead.
"I thought we were going to have quite a bit of cushion but we needed it," Serna said. "(Wednesday) wasn't a characteristic day for us hitting. We told ourselves at the end of (Wednesday's) game it would be a whole new day for us at the plate."
Barrington (9-8, 4-3) didn't go quietly as it dropped a game behind Schaumburg in the West. Steve Janezic's two-out, 2-run single cut the deficit to 7-4.
After an error, Emmanuel Alvarado drew a bases-loaded walk to force Conlin to get his second save and third win.
"It was definitely disheartening," Janezic said of the 10th-inning deficit, "but I liked what I saw out of our team. We never gave up."
St. Viator 14, Hersey 9: Brett Kay's 2-run double keyed a 5-run outburst in the fifth and final inning of Viator's nonconference win against visiting Hersey.
Sean Folan's 3-run double in the first sparked Viator (9-8) to a 9-3 lead after three. Hersey (7-10), which got 2 hits from Mike Toljanic, Chris James and Matt Loranger, tied it in the top of the fifth.
Jack Meyer had 3 RBI and Phil Bar was 3-for-3 with 2 RBI for the Lions.
Maine W. 12, Maine E. 2: Ryan Tuntland, Alex Kopf and Sean Willett each had 3 hits of a 21-hit attack for Maine West (8-3, 5-2) in the Central Suburban North win. Garrett Glover threw a 3-hitter for the Warriors.