Seeds don't tell story in baseball tourney
Fremd, Buffalo Grove and Elk Grove proved seeds usually mean little in the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association summer league tournament.
All three double-digit seeds won two games Monday to begin regional play.
No. 20 Fremd (8-12) and No. 12 Elk Grove (15-10) will play each other in today's 1 p.m. quarterfinal at Prospect.
Fremd rallied to beat No. 13 Huntley 5-4 behind the pitching of Sean Stutzman and Zenon Kolakowski. One of 3 seventh-inning errors on a two-out, bases-loaded grounder by Kevin Ciardello (3-for-4) erased a 4-3 deficit.
"Our (top) pitching hasn't been there and that's why we've gotten beat most of the time," Fremd coach Chris Piggott said. "It makes a big difference when we have them all there."
Fremd beat No. 4 Burlington Central 13-3 on a complete game by Matt Koeppen. Eric Paulson (4-for-4), Clint Terry (3-for-3, 2 doubles, 4 RBI), Evan Wright (3-for-4) and Kurt Kaufman (2-for-4) led the offense.
Elk Grove held off No. 21 Rolling Meadows 8-6 as Donny Duschinsky hit a 3-run homer and winner Ryan Martinski allowed 2 runs in 5 innings.
Kyle Pfister pitched the seventh for the save and then went 22/3 innings for the win as the Grens scored 6 seventh-inning runs to beat No. 5 Jacobs 9-5.
Justin Kaczynski had the go-ahead 2-run, two-out single with the bases loaded and Pfister (3-for-3) followed with a 2-run double.
Buffalo Grove (8-12), the 18th seed in the Palatine regional, hammered No. 17 Northside Prep 24-2 in 6 innings and then upset No. 2 Notre Dame 3-2 as Dan Recht threw a complete game.
Recht didn't allow a run after the first and Tommy Ricciardi had a 2-run single in the first and Steve Pollakov had an RBI double in the third to put the Bison in today's 4 p.m. quarterfinal at No. 10 Deerfield.
"(Recht) was unbelievable," BG coach Jeff Grybash said. "He had struggled a bit with his mechanics and arm slot and was going on two to three days' rest, but he got out there and started feeling good."
In the first game, Ryan Nisbet had an inside-the-park homer and Todd Smithern had a bases-clearing single for winner Greg Sanders.
Host and No. 3 Palatine (20-8) got a 1-hitter from Byron Skinner with 10 strikeouts and 2 walks in a 10-0 win in 6 innings over No. 15 Glenbrook South. Cody Bobbit was 3-for-3 as the Pirates will host No. 11 Loyola at 4:30 p.m.
At Prospect, the top-seeded Knights (16-4) got a 3-hitter with 13 strikeouts and 1 walk from Scott Plaza (5-1) in a 3-0 win over Bartlett. They will play at 10 a.m. today against No. 8 Conant.
No. 3 Hersey (17-8) beat No. 19 Dundee-Crown 4-2 as Ryan Busse threw a 4-hitter and didn't allow an earned run with 7 strikeouts. Joe Perricone hit a 2-run homer and Alex Galabert had a suicide squeeze bunt as the Huskies will host No. 11 Streamwood, a 3-0 winner over Schaumburg, at 10 a.m. today.
At Fenwick, No. 5 Maine West beat St. Joseph 11-3 as Josh Wright allowed a run on 5 hits in 6 innings. The Warriors will host Lake View at 2 p.m.