Semler's blast has Red Sox jumping
The ball sounded good off Colin Semler's bat when he led off the ninth inning for Elk Grove in Wednesday's second round of the Cook County American Legion tournament.
It sounded even better to Semler and the Red Sox when it smacked high off the scoreboard in left-center field at Rec Park in Arlington Heights.
Semler's tie-breaking 400-foot bomb sparked a 3-run outburst as fifth-seeded Elk Grove and Derek Wojcik outdueled top-seed Arlington and Teddy Metzger 4-1.
"When it hit the scoreboard everyone jumped out of the dugout," said Wojcik, who threw a 5-hitter with 10 strikeouts and 2 walks to improve to 7-1. "That was huge."
Semler's third homer of the summer put the Red Sox (23-11) into today's 7 p.m. game at Rec Park. Kentucky-bound Walt Wijas will start against the winner of No. 2 Palatine and No. 6 Wilmette, which was postponed by rain to 11 a.m. today at Fremd.
Arlington (25-10), which has won four straight and 10 of the last 11 County titles, will play a noon elimination game at Rec Park against No. 3 Northbrook, a 6-4 winner over Morton Grove.
The Palatine-Wilmette loser will play at 3:30 p.m. at Rec Park against No. 4 Glenview, which eliminated No. 9 Portage Park 7-6.
Semler was hitless his first 3 at-bats against Metzger, who started with Jon Carlson was unavailable because of a family matter. Metzger had allowed only 5 hits on 85 pitches through 8 innings.
"I wast just trying to get us going," said Semler, who is going to play at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. "I thought he would come with a first-pitch fastball.
"I had no idea it would go that deep. I thought it was a double off the bat and maybe I'd try to get a triple. I heard the noise, which was pretty loud, and saw it come back on the field and went, 'Oh, jeez.'"
Elk Grove didn't stop there. Tim Massat, who tied it with a two-out RBI single on an 0-2 pitch in the seventh, singled and scored on an errant relay on a double off the fence in right-center by George Kalousek (2-for-4).
Eric Walantas sacrificed and Tony Logli (2-for-3) had an RBI single to end Metzger's gutty performance.
"He's a good pitcher and he threw well," said Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer.
"You never want to go into the bottom of the ninth against Arlington in a tie game," Semler said. "Even those (last 2 runs) were bigger."
It turned out Wojcik didn't need them as he used a fastball, changeup and curve for 78 strikes in 123 pitches. The Winona State (Minn.)-bound right-hander didn't allow a hit after Kevin Serna's two-out RBI single in the sixth and also picked off two runners.
"This is the best summer I've ever had," Wojcik said of his third year with Elk Grove. "I was surprised (Tuesday) when (coach Brian Mucha) told me I was going to pitch.
"My curveball and changeup weren't very good the first couple of innings but later on I got more comfortable throwing them."
And Mucha felt good about having Wojcik on the mound. Only 2 hits he allowed left the infield and he was backed by errorless defense that included 5 assists by Bradley-bound shortstop Dave Compitello.
"In the biggest game of the season to this point I wanted our best pitcher out here," Mucha said. "(Arlington) is the best plate-discipline team in the state and Derek is a guy who just doesn't really mess around."