Prospect proves it's never too late
All of the ups and downs of Prospect's baseball season were put into a two-hour time capsule Monday's Class 4A Highland Park regional baseball quarterfinal with Mid-Suburban East rival Buffalo Grove.
The host Knights were down by 5 runs with five outs to go when they rose up for a 10-9 victory on pinch hitter Brian Bauer's bases-loaded infield single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
"We could beat the best team or we could lose to the worst," said Prospect senior shortstop Jason Leblebijian, who was 3-for-4 with an RBI single and the hit to start the 2-run seventh. "That's the way this season has been going. If we keep playing the way we did the last couple of innings, we're going to be good to go."
Prospect (16-15), the 16th seed in the Barrington sectional, plays at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at top-seed Highland Park (24-8), which has lost six of its last 10.
And the Knights beat No. 17 BG (13-18) for the second time in three tries and won for the eighth time in 12 games.
"I've got to hand it to our kids for hanging in there," Prospect coach Ross Giusti said of overcoming a 9-4 deficit. "It's not like we haven't been there before.
"Friday was a morale-builder for us to come back against Schaumburg (13-11 win) and know we have the confidence to string some runs together."
A 2-run homer in the first by Peter Bonahoom helped Prospect to a 4-0 lead after two innings. John Coen faced the minimum for 31/3 innings before Jon Moore doubled and James Hurley had an RBI single for BG's first hits.
BG then appeared to regain the postseason magic of the last two years with runs to the Elite Eight and sectional final. An error opened the door to a 7-run fifth where Matt Stadler had a 2-run double, J.P. Kulick had a 2-run triple and Tommy Ricciardi, Greg Sanders and Jeremy Salzman had RBI singles.
"We did a great job of battling - and we did a lot of good things," said BG coach Jeff Grybash. "But we didn't field the baseball that well again and that's kind of been our Achilles' heel."
An RBI single by Steve Dazzo and a 2-run double by Miles Osei, who pitched a hitless seventh for the win, got Prospect within 9-8 in the sixth. Leblebijian and Bonahoom (2-for-4) singled to start the seventh and Thomas Kelly (2-for-4) drove in the tying run on a misplayed grounder up the middle.
With two outs and the bases loaded, BG was unable to make a play on Bauer's slow roller to the left side as Bonahoom scored.
"It was dead quiet for a good four innings," Leblebijian said. "The last two everyone exploded on the bench and that's when we started to come together and play well."