Arlington batters Palatine
Arlington wanted to prove 3 regular-season losses to Palatine had no bearing on the postseason Cook County American Legion baseball tournament.
Scoring the first 13 runs and pounding out 19 hits in an 18-8 victory in eight innings was an emphatic way of Arlington getting its point across in Friday night's matchup of the last two unbeaten teams at Rec Park in Arlington Heights.
"They always say it's hard to beat a team three times, so it's probably even harder to beat a team four times," said Arlington center fielder and leadoff man Bobby Gehm. "We came out for revenge. We knew we could beat them, and we're both good ballclubs."
Kyle Gaedele allowed only 1 earned run in 7 innings to guarantee second-seed Arlington (34-8), which has won three straight and nine of the last 10 County crowns, will be playing Sunday at Palatine High School.
Dan Kelley will start for Arlington at 2:15 p.m. today at Rec Park against No. 4 Wilmette, which needs to win to stay alive.
Top-seed Palatine (31-5) plays in today's 11 a.m. elimination game at Rec Park against No. 3 Elk Grove (25-12), which knocked out No. 8 Northbrook 7-3 Friday as Derek Wojcik allowed only 4 hits in 8 innings.
A 7-run third helped Arlington roll to a stunning 13-0 lead after four innings.
"It was a little surprising but we were all so jacked for the game," Gehm said. "We were so pumped, so excited and ready for it."
Arlington got 3 hits apiece from its top four hitters as Gehm had a triple and an RBI, Brett Kay doubled and had 2 RBI, Gaedele had 2 doubles with 4 RBI, and Tim Scanlan doubled and had 4 RBI.
"We've got enough good sticks," said Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer. "Scanlan has been hitting the ball better, and so has Kyle."
Kevin Serna, Shane Uhle and John Coen also had 2 hits apiece, and Jason Leblebijian drove in 2 runs.
"In 35 games you're going to have one of those," said Palatine coach Jeff Ryder. "When the train starts rolling you can't stop it."
Gaedele allowed only 5 hits with 4 strikeouts and 2 walks as he threw 70 of his 120 pitches for strikes. He was backed by 3 double plays but 6 infield errors also elevated his pitch count and kept Arlington from ending the game in seven innings.
"He's been smooth," Meyer said of Gaedele. "We've been trying to get him to be smoother and get the ball down. He's been throwing a better breaking ball and he did early."
Tyler Gregory was 3-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI, and Nick Addison went 2-for-5 with an RBI for Palatine, which will start Charlie Limjoco today.
Elk Grove handed Palatine its first loss of the summer and gets another shot, thanks to Wojcik. The righty who will be a senior at Conant needed just 38 pitches to retire the first 12 Northbrook hitters, had 8 strikeouts and 2 walks and allowed only 1 earned run.
"What's good about him is you know you're not going to put yourself in a hole when he's pitching," said Elk Grove coach Brian Mucha.
"In the pen I was a little unsure about my curveball, but once I got in the game I felt fine," said Wojcik, who threw 74 of his 109 pitches for strikes. "I was just looking for Dom (D'Agata) behind the plate and hitting where he was set up."
Elk Grove, which starts Matt Martinski today, broke open a 2-1 game in a 3-run sixth keyed by Joey Zubrus' 2-run single. Zubrus and D'Agata had RBI singles in the eighth.