Good weekends for Palatine, Arlington

Palatine could have left the Moline American Legion baseball tournament early after a Saturday washout.

The Blue Jays were glad they stuck around to play two on Sunday as they finished 4-0 and outscored their opponents 41-9.

"We were just on," said Palatine coach Jeff Ryder. "Our pitching and defense were solid, guys were hitting and we bunted well. We couldn't do anything wrong and everything was clicking."

Especially the power as Nick Addison hit 3 homers, Joey DePaolis hit 2 homers and Clint Terry hit a big 2-run blast on Sunday. But Ryder said the biggest jolt was a 3-run homer by relief specialist Jake Llanas, who rarely gets a chance to hit, to help break open a close game with Galesburg.

"That was a neat highlight for the tourney," Ryder said.

Palatine's pitching depth also got a boost with two solid outings apiece from UIC-bound Mike Schoolcraft and newcomer Phil Brand.

But Palatine dropped to 14-3-1 overall and 7-2-1 in Cook County with a 7-1 loss on Monday to Elk Grove.

"They played a real solid game and we just got beat," Ryder said. "I think we're going to be better for it. We needed to take a lump across the head."

Arlington goes 3-1 in Moline: Arlington also stayed for the duration in Moline and bounced back from a 9-8 loss to the hosts in the second game of the tourney with wins over Washington and Terre Haute (Ind.).

"We played pretty good after that," Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer said of the Moline loss. "We had a little sit down and started to change things in the infield with how we field.

"(After that) we played better defensively then we had in a long time. We've practiced harder to get the fundamentals back.

"If we get that back we'll be all right. If we don't we're going to continue to lose ballgames."

Arlington, which is 17-6-1 overall and atop the County standings at 9-2-1, got solid pitching in Moline from Brian Bauer, Pat Conlin, Jack Mullenix and Jon Carlson. Mullenix was perfect through 5 innings in his win and finished with 7 strikeouts and 1 walk.

Dan Lauria (7-for-9, 3 walks) and Thomas Kelly (6 hits) led the offense. Carlson, Peter Bonahoom and Jason Leblebijian had 5 hits each and Kyle Winkler homered.

Kelly has been a boost in the No. 9 spot and at third base. Meyer said he also hit a homer that was a bomb at Northbrook.

Arlington is at Mount Prospect today and hosts Bartonville in a doubleheader on Saturday.

Pitching in: Because of lack of available pitching for Sunday in Moline, Elk Grove coach Brian Mucha took the option from the tournament officials to leave after splitting two Friday games.

And on Monday against Palatine, Mucha had to turn to Kyle Pusateri, who had thrown only 42/3 innings all season. The sophomore-to-be at Carthage College needed only 80 pitches to throw a 5-hitter with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk in a 7-1 victory.

"With that lineup he mowed them down," Mucha said. "He pretty much moved himself into the No. 4 spot."

Elk Grove rallied from a pair of 4-run deficits to beat Ottawa 12-9 in Moline on homers by Chris D'Angelo, Derek Wojcik and Tony Logli. It lost 4-3 in 8 innings to Wheaton and standout Aric Dama and lost 5-1 to Northbrook on Tuesday to fall to 14-8-1 overall and 8-6-1 in Cook County.

Elk Grove goes to Minnesota this weekend for the 48-team Gopher Classic. The championship game is Tuesday in the Metrodome.

One-hit wonder: Mount Prospect's Eddie Rodriguez couldn't worry about losing a no-hitter in the seventh inning since he was in a scoreless game against the hosts in the Waukegan tournament.

Rodriguez was rewarded for his 1-hitter as Prospect scored in the bottom of the inning for a 1-0 victory.

"He pitched beautifully," said Prospect coach Bill Starr, whose team went 1-2 at Waukegan. "He's got a great change and he's a real smart pitcher around the corners."

A perfect bunt single by Nick Savia started Prospect's winning rally. Steve Zimmerman singled and scored on Chris Strom's single after a failed bases-loaded squeeze bunt.

"He's been hitting the ball like crazy," Starr said of Strom.

Bad news, good news: Barrington (7-8) lost its last five 10th District games to finish 6-5 and get the sixth seed in the tournament. But the good news is it will have its aces ready for their first starts in next week's double-elimination 10th District tourney.

Barrington coach Pat Wire said Sean Buchholz would start Monday at Grayslake and Robby McDonnell would go Tuesday. Depth isn't a concern with Tom Unak, Brendon Schumacher, Tyler Tureck, Jackson Lundmark and Chris Rogers.

"I love our team in this kind of format," said Wire as Barrington tries to win its first 10th District title since 1998. "Our strength is pitching and hopefully we get into some people's bullpens."

Barrington, which is going to Bloomington this weekend for a tourney, will also have Evansville-bound Johnny Day in the lineup next week. Libertyville and Lake Forest got the top two seeds.

Cook County tourney: The tournament begins July 18 and 19 with play-in games between the lowest three seeds. The eight-team, double-elimination tourney runs July 21-25 with games the first two days at the higher-seeded teams and the last three days at Rec Park in Arlington Heights.