Strong starts for local teams

Arlington, Elk Grove and Palatine made strong first pitches for success in Tuesday's opening round of the Cook County American Legion baseball tournament.

A solid 8 innings from Brendan King led top-seed and four-time defending County champion Arlington (25-9) to a 9-1 win over No. 9 Portage Park at Rec Park in Arlington Heights.

Clint Terry threw a 4-hitter as No. 2 Palatine (20-5) rolled to a 16-0 win in 7 innings over No. 7 Morton Grove at Fremd.

And Chris Hoffman fired a 3-hitter with 12 strikeouts to send No. 5 Elk Grove (22-11) past No. 4 Glenview 5-2 at Glenbrook South.

Hoffman continued his impressive second half of the summer as the right-hander had only 2 walks and hit 2 batters in 9 innings. That put Elk Grove in a winner's bracket rematch of last year's championship with Arlington at 4 p.m. today at Rec Park.

"He pitched pretty good," said Elk Grove coach Brian Mucha. "The umpire had a really outside (strike) zone and Chris is smart enough to know the zone and he definitely took advantage of it."

Elk Grove never trailed as Derek Wojcik had 3 hits with an RBI double in the second and a 2-run single in the seventh. George Kalousek had an RBI double, Kyle Pusateri drove in a run and Chris D'Angelo and Eric Walantas had 2 hits apiece.

Mucha said he was undecided whether Wojcik or Walt Wijas would start against Arlington's Jon Carlson today.

The left-handed King scattered 7 hits and had 6 strikeouts and 3 walks for Arlington.

"He pitched as well as I've seen him," Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer said. "We played well defensively."

Thomas Kelly had 2 hits and 2 walks and was solid at third base and Carlson had 3 hits. Jason Leblebijian had an RBI ground-rule double in a 3-run first and a 2-run single by Ed Gerdes and a 2-run triple by Brett Kay keyed a 5-run fifth.

Palatine had split with Morton Grove during the regular season but had little trouble this time as Terry had 5 strikeouts and also helped the offense with 2 doubles.

"It was real solid pitching by Clint, we had some great defensive plays and everybody hit," Palatine coach Jeff Ryder said. "It was one of those games where things were just clicking."

Mike Tauchman had 4 hits, a homer and 5 RBI and Matt Johnsen, Ryan Shober, Eric Paulson (4 RBI) and Tyler Gregory had 2 hits apiece. Johnsen will start today at 4 p.m. at Fremd against No. 6 Wilmette, which beat No. 3 Northbrook 10-6.

Portage Park is at Glenview and Morton Grove is at Northbrook at 4 p.m. today in elimination games.