Barrington prepares for test; Palatine takes County lead
Barrington will be in survival mode Saturday.
Two wins will put Barrington (14-16) in next week's 10th District American Legion baseball final four. A loss ends its summer.
"I think we're still sitting pretty good," said Barrington coach Jim Hawrysko, whose team will face Waukegan or Lake Forest at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. "I think we've got the team that can (win twice)."
Barrington won its 10th District tourney opener 5-2 Wednesday over Gurnee as Tom Unak went the distance, Tim Conroy hit a 2-run homer and Gus Handler hit a 2-run double.
"Unak was in command the whole way," Hawrysko said. "He had real good movement."
Handler's 2-run homer, his ninth of the summer, helped Barrington take a 3-run lead Thursday at top-seed Lake Zurich. But Lake Zurich rallied for an 8-4 win over Sean Buchholz.
Ryan Nolan will start Saturday's elimination game with Robby McDonnell, Conroy and Unak also available to pitch.
Blue Jays rolling along: A seventh-inning run helped Palatine (27-4, 13-1) break a tie atop the Cook County standings with a 6-5 win Thursday over Arlington (12-2 County).
Charlie Limjoco went the distance as the Blue Jays won their 12th straight. Mike Tauchman hit a 2-run homer, Zenon Kolakowski had 2 hits, Alex Fett played a key role at second base and catcher Brett Chidester threw out a runner and drove in the tying run.
"We've had a lot of guys step up and at any time are ready to do," said Palatine coach Jeff Ryder.
Palatine also beat Glenview 3-2 with a complete game by Kyle Bahnick, a homer and triple by Matt St. John and 2 singles by Matt Johnsen. Martin Teufel got the relief win 6-5 over St. Charles.
"It's extremely encouraging," Ryder said of the 1-run wins. "It shows we're never out of it."
Red Sox fired up: A dispute over a controversial call resulted in the umpires calling off Elk Grove's 8-5 loss to Glenview in the bottom of the fifth inning last week.
But the Red Sox (19-8, 10-4) responded with 3 straight wins _ including 5-0 in a rematch with Glenview as Andy Brandt (7-2) threw a 6-hitter with 5 strikeouts and 1 walk.
"He was on top of his game," said Elk Grove coach Brian Mucha, whose team is at the Plover (Wis.) tourney this weekend. "Hopefully we can get hot right before County.
"If we don't kick the ball around we can play with anybody. If we kick the ball we're a pretty horrible team."
Brandt also provided a surprising lift with his bat with a homer, double and 4 RBI in a 12-3 win over Morton Grove.
Quite a day: A few hours after hitting a game-winning single for Hersey in the summer high school tournament, Mike Toljanic slammed a tying homer in the seventh for Arlington as it went on to beat Evanston 6-5 in 8 innings. Dan Kelley pitched a strong 6-plus innings in a no decision.
Arlington is at the Appleton (Wis.) tourney this weekend.
Cook County schedule: The bottom three finishers in the 10-team league will play next Friday and Saturday to determine the eighth seed in the Cook County tournament.
The double-elimination County tournament is July 29 through Aug. 2. Games the first two days are hosted by the higher seeds with the last three days at Rec Park in Arlington Heights.