Kingery, Fiedelman pitch Stevenson to NSC title

Stevenson starting pitcher Greg Kingery found out only Wednesday that he would pitch Thursday in the North Suburban Conference championship game.

"It was a last-minute decision for me to pitch," Kingery said. "I slept fine and I pictured in my mind that this game is just another normal game. It doesn't matter what we are playing for. It was just another baseball game and I treated it like that."

Kingery rewarded Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca's hunch, as he and winning pitcher Blake Fiedelman led Stevenson to a 6-2 victory over host Lakes.

Stevenson, winner of the NSC Lake Division, improved to 28-3. Lakes, winner of the NSC Prairie, fell to 22-10.

"We decided at practice (Wednesday) that we would go with Greg," said Mazzuca, who led the Patriots to his first NSC championship since replacing Bob Mackey two years ago. "I knew that (Tyler) Radtke couldn't pitch because he went on Tuesday, and I knew that Kyle (Ruchim) would be limited because he pitched on Monday. But (Ruchim) was ready to come in for two innings today."

Kingery pitched the first 3 innings. He gave up 2 runs (1 earned) and 4 hits, and struck out three.

"My fastball was really working today," Kingery said. "With my location, I was able to keep it down, which allowed me to put my other pitches in a good spot."

Fiedelman pitched the final 4 innings, shutting out the Eagles on only 3 hits. He struck out four, and neither he nor Kingery allowed a walk.

"Coach (Mazzuca) had asked me the other day what was the longest I had gone this season and I told him about 2 or 3 innings," Fiedelman said. "He told me that I may have to go a little longer if he needed me to."

It was Fiedelman's longest stint of the season.

"Greg did exactly what we had asked from him today," Mazzuca said. "Pitch the early part of the game, keep us in the game and get it to Fiedelman and Ruchim."

Erick King led Stevenson's offense with a single, double and RBI. Ruchim had a double and single, and Teddie Heiser contributed a double.

This was Lakes' second straight appearance in the NSC championship game.

"We were kind of shellshocked last year, just with all of the media and people," Eagles coach Bill Rosencrans said. "We definitely handled that better and we were ready for that."

Lakes allowed two Stevenson batters to reach on dropped-third strikes.

"It's been like this all year," Rosencrans said. "We make mistakes whether it's passed balls and throwing the ball away. That's something we've talked about all year - cutting down on our mistakes. We can't do that against a team like (Stevenson). You're not going to win very many games."

Lakes starter Travis Vanderwall pitched 3 innings. He gave up 3 runs on 4 hits, struck out three and walked a batter.

"It wasn't my day," said Vanderwall, whose record fell to 6-2. "The cut fastball wasn't working. Our offense did come through. We kept getting guys on base and kept pressuring them. We just didn't get the timely hits."

The Patriots scored 3 runs in the second, as Corey Lasky highlighted the inning with a 2-run single to right field. He also squeezed in a run in the sixth.

The Eagles got back two runs in the bottom of the inning. Paul Kukulka singled, Nick Traska doubled and two batters later, Kyle Noon (2-for-3), doubled both runners in.

In the third, the Eagles' Chris Hoffman singled, but Stevenson catcher Jeff Ferstein threw him out on an attempted steal. Kingery then retired the next two batters.

In the seventh, Lakes' third pitcher, Nick Hibbing, who has almost 80 strikeouts in 40 innings, struck out four batters.

In the end, however, Stevenson had too much.

"This is a great accomplishment and I know it hasn't been done in awhile," Ferstein said. "It feels good to finally get it done and hopefully we'll move on to better things."

Grayslake Central 11, Grayslake North 0: The visiting Rams scored 6 runs in the third en route to the five-inning win that clinched first place in the Fox Valley Conference.

Mike Gentile led Grayslake Central (25-7, 19-5) at the plate 3 hits, including a double, and 4 RBI. Josh DeAngelis and Joe Schaiper both had a pair of singles, while Angelo Gargano, Kevin DeRue and Austin Miller each doubled.

Mitch Tielke won his third consecutive game, tossing all 5 innings. He scattered 4 hits and struck out four.

"I'm really proud of the kids," Rams coach Troy Whalen said. "We had to win five conference games in a row to get to this point. Conference championships are special. Hopefully we can earn some more hardware before the season is over."

Grayslake North fell to 8-25, 7-15.

Mundelein 10, North Chicago 0: Blair Metzger homered and doubled for the Mustangs, and also got the win on the mound.

Tony Skaronea (double) and Jake Blakey also had 2 hits for Mundelein (21-9).

Wauconda 7, Antioch 2: The Bulldogs received 2 hits apiece from Erik Maki (double), Dan Tanzillo, Jeremy Wagner and Jake Ziolkowski. Maki went the distance on the mound, scattering 4 hits and striking out four.

Wauconda improved to 17-15.