Kalousek pitches Schaumburg into sectional semifinal

Another solid outing and more spectacular plays in the field.

Three days after Andy Brandt handcuffed Conant in Schaumburg's 2-1 semifinal victory, senior George Kalousek tossed a complete-game 5-hitter on Saturday as the host Saxons defeated No. 10 York 5-1 to win a Class 4A regional championship.

The Eastern Illinois recruit lost his bid for a shutout in the seventh, but the Gold Glove-quality effort shortstop Dave Compitello made on that putout and the one third baseman Alec Fontanez made to his left on the game's final play were a perfect complement to another quality Schaumburg start.

"Pitching and defense is the name of the game," said Schaumburg coach Paul Groot. "If we can keep this up we can play with a lot of people."

No. 1 Schaumburg (23-6) won its 12th regional title under Groot and advances to Wednesday's Larkin sectional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. when it will face fourth-seeded Geneva (21-11), a 2-1 winner against Bartlett on Saturday.

"The defense makes the plays and makes it easy," said Kalousek, who allowed just 1 run for the fourth consecutive start.

Making his first start since last Saturday's 11-1 victory over Rolling Meadows in the MSL championship, Kalousek (8-2) retired the first six batters and struck out four the first time through the Dukes' lineup.

"They're throwing great -- they're all around the plate," Schaumburg catcher Dominick D'Agata said of Kalousek and Brandt. "I barely have to move."

Neither did right fielder Brian Sloan in the first as D'Agata turned on a 1-2 fastball from Tyler Sill and launched a 2-run home run over his head.

"(Dominick and I) always talk before the game about, 'I get on and you're going to follow me up,'" said Compitello, who drew a leadoff walk and scored.

Sill, who pitched 2¿ innings of relief in York's 12-inning, 8-4 win against Batavia on Thursday, allowed 4 runs and 7 hits in 4-plus innings.

"Our pitchers gave us exactly what we wanted today -- to stay in the game and give us a chance," said York coach Phil Bodine.

Schaumburg junior Matt Mistrata's leadoff double in the fourth was followed by a perfect bunt single from Kyle Pusateri. Sill uncorked a wild pitch and Mistrata raced home from third.

D'Agata scored after leading off the fifth with a double, racing to third on a single from Mike Mistrata and tagging up as Sloan robbed Kalousek (2 singles) with a diving catch in right-center.

Dan Launhardt delivered a two-out RBI single in the sixth to cap off the Saxons' 10-hit attack, but all the York coach could talk about was their defense and pitching.

"They made some Division I plays in the infield," Bodine said, "and (Kalousek) is going to beat a lot of people down the road."

Highland Pk. 8, Meadows 4: For awhile it looked as if more late-inning heroics would lead to another playoff victory for Rolling Meadows.

The fourth-seeded Mustangs had shocked host Stevenson on Wednesday with 3 runs in the bottom of the seventh to win. In Saturday's regional final, Meadows scored 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth to grab a 4-3 lead over No. 5 seed Highland Park.

Then it all unraveled in the top of the seventh as the Giants, helped by a couple of miscues in the field, scored 5 runs to claim an 8-4 victory.

Jon Carlson pitched 6 strong innings for Meadows (18-12). Kyle Gaedele, who relieved Carlson in the seventh, was the hard-luck loser.

"He (Carlson) threw really well against a hard-hitting team," said Meadows coach Jim Lindeman.

Highland Park (26-6), which advanced to Wednesday's 4:30 p.m. Libertyville sectional semifinal against top-seed Carmel, scored 3 runs in the first 2 innings, while the Mustangs countered with an RBI single by Carlson in the first.

Meadows still trailed 3-1 in the sixth when with 1 out, Carlson singled to center.

Ben Sabal followed with an RBI double to the fence in left center, Garrett Cannizzo singled home Sabal, then took second on the throw home.

Then a slicing opposite-field double by left-handed hitting pinch hitter Dan Lauria plated Cannizzo with what looked like might be the game-winning run.

"I thought we were going to shut them down," said Lauria, "but you've got to make the plays."

Gaedele came in after an inning-opening walk by Carlson, then after the Giants loaded the bases with one out, a couple of errors and a bad-hop grounder opened the floodgates.

Highland Park's Jimmy Risi, who got the final 3 outs to earn the win, said the Giants were never out of it.

"We've come back from being down further than this," said Risi. "When they scored, it just pumped us up to get some more runs."

Carlson struck out 8 and shut down Highland Park after the second, at one point retiring 8 batters in a row in the middle innings to give Meadows a chance.

"We battled back," said Lindeman. "But you can't overcome 5 errors. That's been our nemesis all year -- from the first game to the last game, we haven't made the plays when we needed to."

-- Bill Esbrook

Leyden 6, Notre Dame 1: Leyden starting pitcher Jonathan Weaver admitted he didn't have his best stuff in the Notre Dame Class 4A regional title game against the seventh-seeded Dons.

But even without his best stuff, the senior right-hander is still pretty good.

Weaver pitched a complete game 3-hitter and led No. 2 seed Leyden to its second consecutive regional title with a 6-1 victory in Niles.

"Jon didn't have his best stuff," said Leyden coach Gary Wolf, "but even without his best, he's better than most. We knew if we could score a couple runs this game was over."

Leyden (25-7) advances to the Niles West sectional and will play in Thursday's 4:15 p.m. semifinal against No. 11 Maine South (12-15), which upset No. 3 Evanston 5-1 at Glenbrook North.

Leyden was clinging to a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Notre Dame (18-18) strung together 3 consecutive hits. Mike Kane's liner past diving second basemen Sam Cochiaro tied the game.

But Weaver answered in the bottom half of the inning with a 2-run double to deep center. The 6-foot-3 senior then held the Dons hitless over the final 4 innings with some nifty fielding by shortstop Timothy Mackey and third baseman Jeremy Stawychny.

"I didn't feel like I had my best stuff," said Weaver, who improved to 6-2 with 6 strikeouts. "But I had to make do with what I had, and I knew the guys behind me would make the plays."

Leyden tacked on 3 more runs in the bottom of the fourth on a 3-run double to right-center by catcher Jack Townley.

"I threw my hands at it and did what I did," said Townley who delivered on the 2-1 fastball. "We've been here before so we know what we can do."

Notre Dame starter Mike Trotta (4-3) allowed 6 runs on 5 hits in only 4 innings.

"Weaver is tough on everybody, so we were hoping to hold them at bay," said Notre Dame coach Bob Kostuch, "But after the 3-run double from that point on it was all downhill."

With top-seed New Trier and Evanston falling on Saturday the door seems open for a dangerous Leyden team.

"Our goal is to get back to the sectional title game and take the next step," said Wolf whose team lost to New Trier in last year's sectional final. "Right now we're a pretty confident group."

-- Michael Eaken

Mundelein 5, Fremd 0: When Mundelein junior Jay Mueller woke up Saturday morning, he thought he had a date with right field. Little did he know, it was his turn to pitch.

Mueller, who's normally behind Eric Rohe, Justin Piasecki and Ian McDermott in the Mustangs' pitching rotation, definitely showed coach Todd Parola what he can do.

Thanks to Mueller's pitching and a big first inning at the plate, No. 2 seed Mundelein won its fourth-straight regional title with a 5-0 shutout of Fremd in Class 4A action.

Mueller gave up just 6 hits in his first complete game of the season.

"I kind of like to know when I'm going to pitch so I can pump myself a little bit," Mueller said. "But in this case, it was pretty good."

No. 7 Fremd ends its season at 17-10 while the 28-5 Mustangs will meet 14th-seeded Buffalo Grove in the Libertyville sectional semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Parola said his decision to pitch Mueller was a game-time decision ,as Piasecki had some tightness in his arm.

"I asked him (Mueller) if he was 100 percent, mentally and physically, and he said yes," Parola said. "So I tossed him the ball and said 'Get the job done,' and he sure did."

Mundelein also benefited from a big first inning as well. The Mustangs put up five runs and batted around.

Kevin Barber and Colton Tortorello opened up the game with two hits and moved up on a wild pitch. With one out, Piasecki started the scoring with an RBI single, and another run scored on a bad throw.

Fremd's bad luck continued with an RBI single from Alex Ahonen to give Mundelein a 3-0 lead. After Ahonen's RBI, Fremd starter Adam Weber was pulled after he gave up 4 hit.

But the Mustangs weren't done. Relief pitcher Brennan Taylor came in under fire as his first pitch was sent out to center field on an RBI single by Brad Medina.

Mundelein closed its first-inning outburst on a throwing error. Fremd committed a couple of miscues in the field.

"Big innings have hurt us all year in our losses," Fremd coach Chris Piggott said. "(Mueller) was working both sides of the plate and really kept us off balance. He did a nice job of getting ahead of guys."

With his team's fourth straight regional title, Parola can only hope for another first inning like Saturday's.

"Our kids came out ready to go and we jumped out on them early," Parola said. "In the first inning we got a little help (from Fremd's errors) and we took advantage of it."

-- Daniel J. Patrick