Wheeling puts serious crimp in Fremd's title march
Fremd was cruising toward a Mid-Suburban League baseball victory at Wheeling more than a week ago when lightning delayed and eventually ended their game before it was official.
In the Saturday morning makeup, Wheeling jumped to a 6-run lead after two innings.
"I told their third baseman, if there was any justice it would pour right now and this game would get rained out," said Wheeling coach Mike Tice.
The rain never came as Wheeling held on for a 7-6 victory to deal a big jolt to Fremd's West Division title hopes.
Matt Holmes drove in 3 runs, Anthony Ricciardi pitched 3 hitless innings of relief and Steve Slussar went the final 1½ innings to earn a save for Wheeling (4-9, 4-5).
Holmes went 2-for-4 and was moved into the leadoff spot as Wheeling scored all its runs in the first three innings.
"He's been hitting really well lately," Tice said.
Fremd (11-6, 6-5), which trails West leader Schaumburg (14-4, 8-2) by 2½ games going into Monday's game in Palatine, scored 2 runs in the third.
But Tice brought in Ricciardi, and he slowed an offense that scored 18 runs in a five-inning win over Hersey on Friday.
"He hasn't pitched much all year, but he throws a little sidearm," Tice said. "I think it was just enough to bother them and he kept the ball down. They hit balls at people and we made some play."
Nick Addison was 2-for-3 as Fremd rallied with 4 runs in the last two innings. Slussar, who threw complete games in Wheeling's first 3 wins, finished the game with a grounder to second baseman Tony Brzezniak (2-for-4) with the bases loaded.
Palatine sweeps Lincoln-Way Central: Junior Andy Prombo went 5-for-8 with a homer and 3 doubles as Palatine (7-15) won 5-3 and 9-7 in nonconference action at Lincoln-Way Central.
Prombo's third double was the game-winner in the seventh inning of the second game. Jeff Emerich had 2 homers and 4 RBI, and Matt Wieber and Brett Chidester had 2 hits apiece as winner Alex Foley allowed 1 run in 3¿ innings of relief.
In the opener, Dan Huenecke threw a complete-game 6-hitter with 1 strikeout and 1 walk. Prombo homered, Cody Bobbit was 3-for-4 and Mark Sloma went 2-for-3.
Maine W. 6, Glenbrook S. 2: Mike Santa Maria threw a complete-game 6-hitter with 9 strikeouts and went 3-for-4 and doubled for Maine West (10-5, 7-4) in the Central Suburban League crossover.
York 8, Meadows 6: Rolling Meadows (12-5) had a 12-8 hit advantage but committed 8 errors as the Mustangs' 10-game winning streak was snapped.
Dan Lauria hit his third homer of the season, and Joe Ingolia, Pat Conlin, Ben Sabal and Jon Carlson had 2 hits apiece.
Joliet Catholic sweeps St. Viator: St. Viator (14-10, 5-7) saw its six-game winning streak end as it lost the East Suburban Catholic Conference double-header 11-5 and 13-8 at Joliet Catholic (19-4).
Jack Meyer had 2 doubles in Game 2 for the Lions.