No sharing in MSL East for Hersey, Busse

There was no reason for Hersey to care about any of the shared Mid-Suburban East baseball title scenarios.

Senior left-hander Ryan Busse went the distance and didn't allow an earned run as the Huskies (24-8, 12-4) took the East crown all for themselves with a 7-1 victory over visiting Elk Grove on Wednesday in Arlington Heights.

"Everyone knew we had one objective today and one goal and that was just to be on top," Busse said after throwing 83 of his 107 pitches for strikes to improve to 6-2.

"It's all ours," said senior third baseman Jake Knauss, who went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI as Hersey finished a game ahead of Prospect and Buffalo Grove. "Most of our players set this as one of our team goals. It's what (coach Bob) Huber wants, to get 20 wins, play in June and win conference."

And Huber got a celebratory ice-water dousing from Knauss and leadoff man Alex Lee after the Huskies wrapped up their eighth division crown. They'll try to win their first MSL title since 1992 at 11 a.m. Saturday at West champion Fremd.

"That'll be fun, it's fun for the kids," Huber said after his fifth division title in his 16-year tenure. "I think this is the hard part. Getting there."

Hersey made it a little easier with another of its trademark fast starts against Elk Grove (9-23, 4-12) senior Donny Duschinsky.

Lee and Knauss singled to start the first and Chris Polinski (2-for-4) lined a 2-run single to left-center.

"It's really big for everyone's confidence," Knauss said. "Lee starts it off, I follow it up and Domenic (Biagini), Chris and (Sean) Thompson really spark everything. It sets the tone for the rest of the game."

Busse had his fastball, curve and changeup working as he scattered 9 hits but had no walks and 8 strikeouts. Elk Grove, which lost for the 11th time in 12 games, got its only run in the second on Justin Arguelles' RBI single.

"I just felt everything was going good," said Busse, who plans to pitch at Harper College. "I got out of jams when I had to and made the right pitch and we played really good defense."

Three walks and a hit batter led to a 3-run fourth where Polinski had an RBI single for the only hit. Knauss had an RBI double and Thompson had an RBI single in the sixth.

"Things won't change for us until we start really, really making teams earn their runs," said Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna. "That's not to discredit Hersey because they got hits and their kid threw a good game."

Elk Grove had a scare after the fourth inning when shortstop Ryan Martinski had to be tended to by Hersey athletic trainers outside the dugout.

Beyna said Martinski was having trouble breathing because of a heart condition called SVT, which is generally considered nonlife threatening, according to emedicinehealth.com. Martinski was conscious and was taken by paramedics to the hospital as a cautionary move.

Palatine 5, Barrington 4 (8 inn.): Cody Bobbit hit a game-winning homer with 1 out in the bottom of the eighth and had a 2-run double for Palatine (18-13, 11-5) in the MSL West. Kevin Klein went 2-for-4 with an RBI and winner Byron Skinner (7-4) had 7 strikeouts in 5 relief innings.

Anthony Brignola and Ricky Alfonso went 3-for-3 and Jack Scheffler homered for Barrington (19-14, 9-7).

BG 5, Meadows 4: Jake Monson had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly and Kevin Tennenbaum followed with an RBI single in a 4-run seventh for Buffalo Grove (18-11, 11-5). Tommy Ricciardi (2-for-4) tied it with an RBI single in the MSL East win.

Jeremy Salzman (5-2) went 3 innings of relief and limited Meadows (9-21, 7-9) to a run with runners at second and third and no outs in the bottom of the seventh.

Conant 3, Fremd 1: Mike Taccona threw a 5-hitter and Kyle Gizynski went 2-for-3 for Conant (11-12, 5-11) in the MSL West. Kevin Ciardiello was 2-for-3 for Fremd (17-12, 12-4).

Schaumburg 7, Hoffman 6: Kurt Kempema went the distance for Schaumburg (9-16, 5-11) and Matt Brancato had 2 doubles and 3 RBI in the MSL West win. Zach Demmon hit a 2-run homer for Hoffman Estates (13-19, 6-10).

Prospect 13, Wheeling 3 (6 inn.): Peter Bonahoom hit his eighth homer and had 2 hits and Kurt Donner had a pinch-hit homer for Prospect (18-11, 11-5) in the MSL East. Winner Scott Plaza threw 4 scoreless relief innings and Ed Gerdes and Jack Landwehr had 2 hits.

St. Viator 12, St. Patrick 4: Julian Sipiora (3-for-3, 2 doubles, triple), Cory Kay (3-for-5, homer, 3 RBI), Brendan King (3-for-4, 3 RBI), Kevin Gannon (2-for-3, 3 RBI) and Jack Czeszewski (2-for-4) led a 15-hit attack as St. Viator (16-16, 8-10 ESCC) broke a six-game losing streak. Robert Romano (7-2) had 8 strikeouts in 5 innings.