Firth and foremost

It was obvious who Scott Firth's biggest fan was on Thursday afternoon.

Knowing which pitch of his was hurling toward home plate, however, wasn't quite so obvious.

A bubbly gentleman wearing a purple and orange Clemson hat was all about cheering for Firth at the Barrington sectional semifinal that pitted Stevenson against North Suburban Lake Division rival Lake Zurich.

Firth is Stevenson's ace pitcher and one of the best in the area. He's earned a scholarship to pitch at Clemson next year.

Every time Firth struck out a Lake Zurich batter, which happened a whopping 14 times in Stevenson's dramatic 1-0 victory, the gentlemen clapped emphatically. He also yelled words of encouragement to Firth and tried to get the rest of the Stevenson fans who were sitting with him behind home plate to do the same.

Had to have been Mr. Firth, right?

"No, that was Mr. Ruchim. He's a good guy and I love having him out here cheering," Firth said of his biggest fan, the dad of one of Stevenson's other top pitchers, junior Kyle Ruchim.

Ruchim has already committed to Northwestern. That gives Stevenson a total of four Division I pitchers - Ruchim and seniors Firth, Brad Sorkin (Illinois State) and Matt Robin (Ohio University).

"Whenever (the three seniors) pitch, Mr. Ruchim wears the hat of the school that pitcher will go to," Firth said. "He's a fun guy."

What wasn't fun, at least for Lake Zurich, was trying to decipher what Firth was throwing. He masked his pitches well.

So well, in fact, that all the Patriots needed offensively was a fourth-inning solo home run by third baseman Teddy Heiser to put them over the top and into Saturday's Barrington sectional championship game (3 p.m.) against host Barrington, which disposed of Libertyville on Wednesday in the other sectional semifinal.

Stevenson (29-6) will be seeking its 30th win of the season and its first supersectional berth since 2005. Lake Zurich, meanwhile, closes out its North Suburban Conference championship season with a 25-10 record.

"There's a reason Firth's going to Clemson. I've never seen a change up that good. It's the best I've ever seen," said Lake Zurich ace Chas Evans, who carried a plus-.400 batting average through much of the season. He went 0-for-3 with 3 strikeouts against Firth.

To add insult to injury, Evans, the honorary captain of the Daily Herald's Lake County all-area baseball team, also picked up his first loss on the mound to finish the season with an 8-1 record.

"The thing that was so tough is that Firth's changeup looked like a fastball all the way until the last second," Evans explained. "Then it just dropped four to six inches right before it got to the plate. We were all getting frustrated. All year long, we've basically been able to hit every pitcher we've face. But we couldn't figure him out. He was definitely on today."

Not only did Firth tie his season-best mark of 14 strikeouts, he also gave up only 2 walks and 3 hits. He had a no-hitter going into the sixth inning.

The victory moves his record on the mound to 7-1.

"I felt pretty good," Firth said. "I was zoning in all day preparing for this. I knew I had to bring it.

"The changeup was really working. It's been a huge pitch for me, to keep guys off-balance and as a big strikeout pitch."

The more strikeouts the better for Stevenson, which hit the ball, but couldn't take full advantage. The Patriots left 6 base runners stranded.

"(Lake Zurich) had their best guy (Evans) throw and we had our best guy and it was whoever could scratch," said Heiser, whose home run over the right field fence was his second of the season. "I just got a pitch that was up and I drove it and we ended up on top.

"It helps to have someone who can throw like Firth can. He threw a gem again. It seems like he does that every time he pitches."

Pitching on both sides was solid. Besides Ruchim (2-for-3) no one for either team had more than one hit on the day.

"Going against one of the top teams in the area, Scott had them guessing all day long," Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca said. "Their guys were gearing up for a 92 mile-an-hour fastball and he throws an 82 mile-an-hour changeup with the same hand speed. They couldn't pick it up and he just pounded the strike zone."