Pitchers power Barrington

There has been a twist to the continuation of success from the high school baseball postseason to the start of American Legion play at Barrington.

The pitching of Tom Unak, Brendon Schumacher and Tyler Tureck has been the backbone of a 5-0 start in Legion play. And Robbie McDonnell and Sean Buchholz, who combined for 4 playoff wins for the Class 4A high school supersectionalist, haven't started yet so they could focus on last weekend's showcase tournament for seniors-to-be at Stevenson.

"To do that without Buchholz and McDonnell, that's the best part for us," said Barrington coach Pat Wire of all its wins coming in 10th District play. "If you told me we'd be 5-0 without either of those guys pitching -"

Unak and Schumacher are 2-0 with ERAs of 1.00 in 14 innings apiece. Tureck threw a 1-hit shutout to beat Vernon Hills.

Schumacher, a Dundee-Crown graduate who is going to Augustana, beat Mundelein 3-2 on Tuesday as Barrington rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the final 2 innings.

Schumacher also beat Deerfield 1-0.

"You don't find too many kids like him - he's old-school competitive," Wire said. "It looked like he was running out of gas in the fourth inning and he was absolute nails the last three innings. It was something special."

Unak tied the game with an RBI double in the seventh and Jim Cook followed with an RBI single for his second game-winning hit of the summer. Johnny Day also had 2 hits.

Wire said Jack Scheffler has been outstanding at the plate and Chris Holke is starting to come around. Ricky Alfonso has also homered and David Alameda from St. Viator has solidified the defense at second base.

Buchholz has been hitting and playing first base and Wire said he should be ready to pitch this weekend in Barrington's wood-bat Mid-Summer Classic. McDonnell is expected to start pitching next week.

"We've got great chemistry going," said Wire, who also gave credit to hitting coaches Nate Gray and Mike McGuire. "I'm really ecstatic for the kids."

Arlington seeks consistency: A 7-2 start overall and a 6-1 start in Cook County play would make it appear as if its business as usual for Arlington.

But Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer said the four-time defending County champions have a way to go after losing 9-2 to Wilmette on Tuesday.

"We're not playing real well," Meyer said. "We are scoring runs but we've made some key errors and our pitching isn't there yet even though are pitchers are good.

"We'll get better but we're not where we have to be right now."

Arlington did get a boost as Kentucky-bound left-hander Jon Carlson decided to play this summer. Meyer said Carlson has looked good so far and pitched well the first 3 innings against Wilmette before he was hurt by some wildness and shaky defense.

Meyer said Dan Lauria, Peter Bonahoom and Brett Kay have been hitting well and Jason Leblebijian started hitting better this week.

"We're experimenting," Meyer said of his starting lineup.

Arlington will go to Champaign this weekend for a wood-bat tourney.

Steady Gregory for Blue Jays: Catcher Tyler Gregory has been one of the models of consistency for Palatine, which improved to 6-2-1 overall and 4-2-1 in the County with a 4-3 win over Northbrook on Wednesday.

Gregory drove in the tying runs with a two-out hit against Northbrook.

"He comes up with the big two-out hit for you and he's steady behind the plate," said Palatine coach Jeff Ryder. "He always wants to be back there no matter how hot it is."

Clint Terry went 5 innings for the victory and Jake Llanas finished for the save against Northbrook in Palatine's first game since Sunday. Matt Johnsen had 3 hits in the cleanup spot.

"It's kind of been crazy with that," Ryder said of getting hit with a bunch of rainouts, "and trying to get a regular rhythm and pitching rotation going."

Mike Tauchman, Zenon Kolakowski and Sean Stutzman have also looked good on the mound for Palatine, which hosts Morton Grove tonight and Evanston at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Up-and-down Red Sox: The pitching and defense have been solid for Elk Grove.

But an offense that was expected to be potent has been another story as the Red Sox were 7-6-1 overall and 3-5-1 in Cook County play after a 3-3 game with Morton Grove was called after 7 innings because of darkness.

"We're so inconsistent right now," Elk Grove coach Brian Mucha said. "The only time we played good in a stretch was this weekend at the Wheaton tourney (four games with 10 or more hits).

"In County play it's day and night. We don't hit when we get guys on base and with guys on third and less than two outs we don't get them in. We're struggling right now."

But the pitching continues to be a strength as Derek Wojcik threw his second no-hitter of the summer with 12 strikeouts in a 1-0 win over Evanston. Wojcik also took a tough-luck 2-1 loss to Wilmette.

Tyler Ford has eaten up a lot of innings and Dave Compitello and Tim Massat have provided much-needed depth. Massat, who also catches, threw 51/3 scoreless innings at the Wheaton tourney.

"I'm pretty happy with our staff and guys have stepped up," Mucha said. "Massat has a good arm and isn't going to walk anybody. Those guys are right around the plate and that's all you can ask for."

Mucha called the defense "our high point" with the play of Compitello at shortstop and Wojcik at second base, Massat behind the plate and Kyle Pusateri at third.

And the offense has had bright spots with Eric Walantas (.413, 10 stolen bases) moved to the leadoff spot ahead of Compitello (.375), Colin Semler (.381, 12 RBI) and Chris D'Angelo (.400, 10 RBI).

"We haven't done anything really drastic," Mucha said of juggling the lineup to spark the offense. "I told them, too, we have maybe one or two guys on the bench who can play the field. There's no one behind you so I can't give you a rest because you're struggling."