Rolling Meadows 13, Fremd 0

All that stood between Kyle Gaedele and a shutout was his future college baseball teammate and roommate.

Any doubt about a victory for Rolling Meadows was long gone as Gaedele had a 13-run lead with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning and a Fremd runner on third in Thursday's Mid-Suburban League crossover.

But shortstop Ryan Shober wanted to keep Fremd from being blanked for the first time this spring as he stepped in to face Gaedele.

With Valparaiso coach and former major-leaguer Tracy Woodson watching, Gaedele got Shober on a flyout to center as Meadows cruised to its 10th straight win 13-0.

"I tried not to look at his face because I knew I'd start laughing," Gaedele said. "It was all fun."

Everything is fun for Meadows (12-4, 8-2) right now as the Mustangs are guaranteed of having the East lead when they visits two-time defending division champion Prospect (10-10, 6-4) on Monday.

And everything went right as Gaedele (1-1) threw a 6-hitter, was backed by flawless defense and an offense that took advantage of every mistake by Fremd (10-5, 5-4), which fell 2½ games behind West leader Schaumburg.

"Offensively and defensively at the beginning of the year we weren't making plays we're making now," said Meadows No. 8 hitter Ben Kamperschroer, who was 3-for-3 with a double and 4 RBI.

"We're (executing) a lot better and fielding a lot better," said Meadows junior second baseman Dan Lauria, whose 3-run homer to center made it 10-0 in the third. "Everything is coming together."

Especially after Gaedele's first start in three weeks from a muscle strain in his right arm. Gaedele threw 40 of his 60 pitches for strikes with 3 strikeouts and no walks.

"It was nice to see him throw strikes and get ahead of hitters and keep his pitch count down," said Meadows coach Jim Lindeman.

"He had good stuff today," Shober said. "He called me earlier (this week) and said his arm didn't feel good and he didn't know if he would pitch.

"Then he said it felt better. He came out and did a great job."

Fremd lefty Adam Weber wasn't bad, either. But 5 errors led to the first 10 runs he allowed being unearned.

A sacrifice bunt by Ted Metzger (2-for-3) and perfect bunt singles by Kamperschroer and Scott Wenzel (2-for-3) set up 5-run outbursts in the second and third.

"We've got to be even more on our game defensively when he's on the mound," said Fremd coach Chris Piggott of his groundball-pitching lefty. "I thought that was one of the best pitching performances for giving up 13 runs. Ten unearned runs is unacceptable."

Leadoff man Kevin Serna had an RBI single in the fourth and drove in 2 runs. Meadows got 7 hits and 5 RBI from Metzger, Kamperschroer and Wenzel at the bottom of the order.

"Everyone is doing their part and hitting the ball good," Kamperschroer said.

And it's led to Meadows' longest winning streak since the 2000 MSL champs won 11 in a row and went 27-6.

"It feels good," Gaedele said. "We have to keep riding it as long as we can."

Schaumburg 10, Elk Grove 6: Dominick D'Agata sparked an 8-run first with 2-run homer and Schaumburg (14-4, 8-2) held off a late rally in the MSL crossover.

D'Agata (2-for-4), Kyle Pusateri (3-for-4, 2 doubles, 2 RBI), Dave Compitello (2-for-3, 2 RBI) and Dan Launhardt (2-for-4) led a 13-hit attack. George Kalousek (4-0) went 5½ innings and Pusateri went 1¿ for the save.

Elk Grove (11-10, 5-4) rallied within 8-6 in the sixth. Kevin Miller was 4-for-4 with a homer and 2 RBI and Mike Czurylo was 2-for-3 with a homer and 2 RBI.

Conant 5, Prospect 4: Austin Wright's pinch-hit 2-run homer in the bottom of the seventh gave Conant (7-9, 4-6) the MSL crossover win. Scott Hojnacki got the win in relief, and Mario Morrone and Nate Rahn drove in runs to send Prospect (10-10, 6-4) to its fourth straight league loss.

Hersey 6, Barrington 2: Dan Kelley threw a complete-game 5-hitter and didn't allow an earned run with 5 strikeouts and 1 walk as Hersey (11-11, 3-7) won its fourth straight in the MSL crossover.

Mike Toljanic (3 RBI), Pat Hyde and Matt Milligan went 2-for-3 for the Huskies. Gus Handler was 2-for-3 with an RBI for Barrington (10-9, 5-4).

Palatine 9, BG 7: A solid relief effort by Alex Foley led Palatine (5-15, 4-6) to the MSL crossover win. Foley allowed only 2 hits and a walk and had 6 strikeouts in 3¿ innings.

Cody Bobbit and Jeff Emerich went 2-for-3 for Palatine. Zach Borenstein hit a 3-run homer in the first and James Hurley had a triple and 2 RBI for BG (7-9, 3-7).

Hoffman 8, Wheeling 8 (susp.): An RBI double by Jake Fett and a 2-run homer by Alex Fett tied the game for Hoffman in a 4-run bottom of the sixth. It was the fourth suspended MSL game in the last nine days when it was called after the seventh because of darkness.