Belleville takes its toll on Barrington
Tyler Tureck's stellar relief pitching gave Barrington a shot in Wednesday's first round of the American Legion baseball state tournament.
The trouble for Barrington in its comeback bid was all of its shots seemed to land in Belleville gloves at Rec Park in Arlington Heights.
Tureck threw 61/3 innings of scoreless relief but the early damage by defending state champion Belleville (31-3) held up for a 7-4 victory.
"He's quietly putting together a special summer," said Barrington coach Pat Wire after the left-handed Tureck scattered 3 singles and had 7 strikeouts and 3 walks. "I was very, very proud of him.
"That's a very good-hitting Belleville team he stifled and he's done that all year."
But lefty Sean Hulse (7-1) settled down after a rocky start to go the distance and put Belleville in today's 3 p.m. winner's bracket game against Rock Island (27-4), an 8-2 winner over Elk Grove.
Barrington will try to stay alive at 11 a.m. today in an elimination game against Mattoon (34-3), which lost 12-3 to Palatine.
Brendon Schumacher will start on the mound today and he just missed leading Barrington to a huge start with his bat Wednesday. Jack Scheffler's leadoff triple helped load the bases to begin the game and Bryan Grabowski drove in a run with a grounder.
After Bryant Sullivan walked to re-load the bases with two out, Schumacher hit a shot deep to left. Luke Matecki made a sprawling catch on the warning track more than 360 feet away.
"On any other field that's a grand slam," said Belleville coach Mike Harres.
"If we're playing at Barrington High School, 'Shoe' hits a grand slam and we're up 5-0," Wire said.
"It's a momentum-changer," said Belleville first baseman Rob Beatty, who went 3-for-4 with two RBI doubles. "You've got the bases loaded with two outs and get away with it and then put five up on the board."
Mitch Matecki and Rory Herrington had RBI singles and Tony Kossina had a sacrifice fly in the 5-run first. Johnny Day had a 2-run single with two outs in the second for Barrington but Belleville got the runs back on consecutive two-out RBI doubles by Beatty and Kane Sweeney.
Schumacher also lined into a double play to end the third and Scheffler lined to second to finish the sixth.
Infield singles by David Alameda and Sullivan and an error on Chris Holke's sacrifice fly got Barrington within 7-4 in the seventh. Schumacher came up as the tying run with two outs but catcher Tyler Burk made a spectacular catch of a pop up against the screen.
Hulse retired the final six hitters in a 145-pitch effort.
"I'm not disappointed," Wire said. "My guys fought hard and kept competing."