Buchholz, Broncos go distance to beat Wolves

Sean Buchholz was ready to stay on the mound as long as it took to deliver a victory for Barrington on Thursday.

"I still feel fine," the 6-foot-4 junior right-hander said after throwing 7 innings and 119 pitches. "I wanted to throw even more."

That wasn't going to happen against defending Class 4A state baseball champion Prairie Ridge. But Buchholz felt even better because Barrington (3-2) scored a run without a hit in the bottom of the seventh to win 3-2.

"It's a huge boost for us," Buchholz said. "We came out here thinking we were going to win."

It wasn't easy in a showdown where Buchholz (2-0), one of the state's top junior prospects, and Prairie Ridge senior righty Joe Zwierzynski (1-1) each scattered 6 hits.

Buchholz threw 75 strikes and gave up only 2 walks and no earned runs. He picked off two runners at first and got all 6 of his strikeouts in the final 31/3 innings when his nasty slider started biting.

"He did what he needed to do to keep us in the game," said Barrington coach Jim Hawrysko, "which a good pitcher is supposed to do. He wasn't laboring and the ball was still doing what it needed to do."

Zwierzynski, who has interest from Michigan State and Creighton, allowed only 1 earned run with 9 strikeouts the first 6 innings.

"It was a good pitcher's battle, which we knew it was going to be," said PR coach Dave Haskins. "You're not going to come here against Buchholz and score 7 runs. We made too many mistakes - and you have to do little things against aces."

Logan Olson's two-out RBI triple in the fifth put Prairie Ridge up 2-1 but Buchholz got a strikeout on a slider. Anthony Brignola tied it when he led off the bottom of the fifth with his third homer of the year on a 3-1 fastball.

Buchholz left runners at second and third in the sixth with 2 strikeouts on sliders.

"You've got to hand it to 'Buck,' " Brignola said. "He got our team's adrenaline pumping. We were fired up and right then I knew we were going to win the game."

Derek Foderaro was hit with a pitch to start the Barrington seventh. A one-out balk and a wild pitch led to intentional walks to Brignola and Tim Oakley and then Johnny Day, who was 2-for-3 with an RBI single, was hit in the foot to force in the winning run.

"My slider was working a lot and my adrenaline just kicked in," Buchholz said. "We just wanted to win that game more than them."

Schaumburg 2, Lake Park 0: One hit was enough for Schaumburg (4-0) as senior Kyle Meyer (3-0) threw a 1-hitter at Lake Park. Meyer, who committed to Concordia University in River Forest, allowed only a two-out single in the first and had 8 strikeouts and 1 walk.

Schaumburg got its runs on a bases-loaded walk in the fourth and Matt Mistrata's RBI single in the sixth.

Conant 4, CL South 0: Walt Wijas (2-0) threw a 3-hitter with 8 strikeouts in the third shutout of the year for Conant (5-0). Bobby Colucci had 2 RBI and Otto Linderman and Derek Wojcik drove in runs.

Hersey 6, Highland Park 1: Chris James faced the minimum through 5 innings and threw a complete-game 3-hitter for Hersey (3-2) in the win at Highland Park (5-1). James had 4 strikeouts, no walks and didn't allow an earned run.

James and Mike Toljanic went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

Elk Grove 8, Ridgewood 1: Carl Sugihara had 2 doubles and J.J. Kaczynski got the victory as Elk Grove (7-2) allowed only 3 hits.

Wheeling 3, Maine South 3: Bobby Beelen had a 2-run double and Matt Hart had a two-strike suicide squeeze bunt in the sixth of a game called after 7 innings because of darkness. Hart went the distance with 6 strikeouts and 1 walk.