Warren 1, Libertyville 0
Libertyville's baseball team defeated Warren 6-2 and 6-5 during the regular season.
In the teams' Class 4A regional opener Thursday, their third meeting developed into a pitchers duel between the North Suburban Conference Lake Division rivals.
The third time proved to be the charm for Warren, as Sean Kennedy allowed only 4 hits in pitching the 12th-seeded Blue Devils past the fifth-seeded Wildcats 1-0.
Libertyville's Troy Barton also pitched great, scattering 8 hits, striking out 10 and walking one.
When Vince Viverito hit a squibber that didn't make it out of the infield to score Chad Johnson in the first inning, little did anybody realize that it would be the only run.
Warren (18-13) will meet Carmel Catholic, a team the Blue Devils beat 5-1 two weeks ago, in the regional championship at 3 p.m. Saturday.
"Sean pitched a great game for us today," Warren coach Clint Smothers said. "He had all three pitches working. His change is definitely his best pitch and I think he kept (Libertyville) off balance all day with that pitch."
According to Smothers, the last inning has been a killer for his team all season.
"Every game that we've been in, if we do have a lead -- and we've been in a few of them this year -- that last inning has come down to that last pitch."
Tom Jacobson was 2-for-3 for Libertyville (23-13). Jeremy Butler and Lee Gough had the only other hits for the Wildcats.
"If you would have told me (before the game) that the difference in the ballgame would be a play that, after two outs in the first inning, was kind of misplayed by our first baseman and pitcher, I would have said no way," Libertyville coach Jim Schurr said. "(Warren) made some nice plays. We had bases loaded and hit the ball hard a couple of times that went for double plays.
Libertyville threatened to score in the first and seventh innings.
In the first, Tim Matheson reached on an error, and Chase Guarnaccio walked. After a forceout, Jacobson singled, but Warren escaped with an inning-ending double play.
In the seventh with one out, Jacobson doubled to right. When the ball got past Warren right fielder Ryan Pyles, center fielder Viverito backed him to make sure that Jacobson didn't advance to third.
Kennedy was able to get the last two outs on a strikeout and groundout.
It was a tough loss for Libertyville, and first baseman Joey Aiello knew Barton deserved a better fate.
"We hit the ball hard a couple times, but right to people," Aiello said. "It was tough, but we should have found a way to get at least one run for Troy."
-- Irv Solomon
R-B 3, Wauconda 2: Host Wauconda faced a tough challenge when it faced Richmond-Burton ace pitcher Matt Salemi on Thursday afternoon in an IHSA Class 3A regional baseball semifinal.
Trailing the sixth-seeded Rockets 3-0 headed into the top of the seventh, the No. 12 Bulldogs put together a late rally, but they fell just short as Richmond-Burton held on for a 3-2 victory.
Wauconda finished its season with a 10-17 record, while the Rockets (15-15) will travel back to Wauconda on Saturday to play No. 3 Grayslake Central for the regional championship at 11 a.m.
Junior pitcher Bryce Lahrman started the Bulldogs' seventh-inning comeback by reaching on a dropped-third strike. He moved to second base on the second balk of the game by the UIC-bound Salemi.
After Kyle Tanzillo grounded out, No. 9-hitter Brad Shippee walked to put runners on first and second.
Pinch hitter Johnny Ryan delivered a long RBI single off of the right fielder's glove that scored Lahrman, as Ryan and Shippee advanced to second and third when the relay throw got away from the infielders.
Eric Johnson's sacrifice fly to the second baseman in shallow right field drove in Shippee with the second run, but Salemi got Adam Tagli to ground out back to the mound to end the contest in the chilly late May weather.
"We faced a very good pitcher, he was around the plate all the time, and he kept us off balance," said Wauconda coach Bill Sliker. "Our kid (Lahrman) pitched out of a lot of jams. He pitched well, and I thought it was going to be kind of a pitcher's duel today."
Richmond-Burton took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on RBI singles by Pete Lesniewski and Johnny Canalle before adding an unearned run on an RBI infield single by Lesniewski in the fourth.
"I thought we played pretty well, but things didn't go our way," said Lahrman, whose team committed 3 errors. "If we had gotten a few more hits things could have been a little different, but we'll have a solid team coming back next year."
The Bulldogs were outhit 6-5 overall despite a pair of hits by catcher Jamey Carey.
"It was a good game for us and it was just a good solid performance defensively and pitching-wise," said Richmond-Burton coach Mike Giese, whose team lost to Grayslake Central in its second game of the season. "It's one step at a time for us, but it's definitely going to take more hits Saturday if we want to be competitive."
Wauconda had a chance for a run in the top of the fifth with runners on second and third and two outs. But shortstop Lesniewski fielded Johnson's soft liner barehanded on one bounce before throwing him out to end the threat.
-- John Bumbales
Johnsburg 12, Antioch 0: At Antioch, the 11th-seeded Skyhawks pulled off the upset to advance to Saturday's 10:30 a.m. regional final against No. 2 Marian Central.
Ken Karagiorgas allowed 7 runs (5 earned) in 6½ innings in suffering the loss for No. 7 Antioch (16-14).
Highland Pk. 12, Prospect 7: Nothing could slow down Highland Park's bats, not even a third-inning trip to the umpire by Prospect coach Ross Giusti.
With Jason Stein digging in, Giusti approached the man in blue and asked him to inspect the leadoff hitter's bat.
"It came off like it was plastic or rubber," Giusti said of Stein's first-inning double. "I don't know if it's a new line of bats or what, but it didn't sound normal. It seemed like the ball was jumping off the bats differently."
With a team batting average hovering near .370, the Giants have been crushing the ball unlike any team Prospect (16-14) has faced this season. Led by Stein (3-for-4), Johnny Lindquist (2-for-3) Anthony Kopp (2-for-3) and A.J. Nathan (2 RBI), Highland Park pounded out 11 hits as it defeated the 11th-seeded Knights 12-7 in a Class 4A Stevenson regional semifinal.
The Giants will face Rolling Meadows in Saturday's 10 a.m. regional championship.
"One through nine they could hit the ball solid anywhere," said Prospect junior Jason Leblebjian, who went 3-for-3 with 3 RBI.
Faced with the unenviable task of facing Highland Park's red-hot bats was senior left-hander Dominic Pugliese.
"I thought my stuff was a little bit flat," Pugliese said after allowing 9 hits in 4½ innings. "But give them credit, they're one of the best hitting teams we've faced all year."
Kansas State-bound Jimmy Risi (3 RBI) greeted Pugliese in the first inning with a 2-run home run that curled into the right-field foul pole, and Lindquist (3 RBI, 3 runs) hammered a leadoff shot over the fence in left-center in the fourth.
"Dominic hit his locations but he didn't have any of his overpowering stuff," Giusti said.
Highland Park right-hander Jon Menke struck out three while allowing 6 hits and 7 walks in 5¿ innings.
Back-to-back, two-out walks to Ross Axely and Matt Smith in the second resulted in 2 runs when Leblebjian floated a single into short center.
Leblebjian knocked a two-out RBI double in the fourth, and senior Griffin Rebecca (2-for-4) cleared the bases with a two-out triple in the sixth, but giving up 5 walks, 5 hits and 8 runs in the fifth were too much for the Knights to overcome.
"We've had one inning that's absolutely killed us this year," Giusti said. "It's been our Achilles' heel."
-- Matt Beardmore
Fremd 3, Deerfield 2: For a few minutes Thursday, the Fremd baseball team looked like its impressive season might come to a crashing halt.
With Fremd clinging to a 1-run advantage, junior closer Matt Johnson was called in to relieve starter Jason Ford, who had given the Vikings 5½ solid innings, giving up 1 earned run on 3 hits.
For many, the pressure would be too much to bear.
Not for Johnson, a 5-foot-10 left-hander.
With nerves of steel, Johnson got Matt Vanderbilt to pop out to first baseman Mike Tauchman to end the Warriors' rally in the sixth.
Then Johnson set Deerfield down in order in the seventh to secure a 3-2 victory for the Vikings in Class 4A regional semifinal action at Mundelein.
Fremd returns to Mundelein to meet the Mustangs for the regional title on Saturday (10 a.m.).
"It's just fun out there," Johnson said. "I've been in this situation before and have gotten used to it. I think I've adjusted to it pretty well."
"(Johnson) has done a great job all year for us coming out of the pen," said Vikings coach Chris Piggott. "He's done outstanding."
Other than the sixth inning jam, Ford was nearly flawless, hitting his spots to perfection.
"Having a solid defense behind me really helped me out today," Ford said. "I just got into the groove and the defense behind me made the plays."
The game was scoreless when Tauchman blasted his first home run of the spring in the bottom of the third.
Tauchman took Deerfield starter Sam Dickstein (6 innings, 3 earned runs, 6 hits) deep to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.
"My first at-bat I kind of got away from my game and swung at the first pitch," Tauchman said. "I just wanted to be patient and wait for a ball I could drive."
The Vikings scored again in the fourth thanks to an RBI double by catcher Tyler Gregory that drove home Anthony Concialdi, who had walked.
In the fifth, Vikings senior Sean Freed drove home what proved to be the winning run when his infield single scored Ryan Shober to increase the lead to 3-0.
"It was huge," Ford said. "If I gave up a run, we would still be winning and that makes it a lot easier for me out there."
-- Dan Hyman