Big three prepare for battle in Cook Co. tournament
Palatine, Arlington and Elk Grove are no strangers to American Legion baseball postseason success.
The top three seeds in the eight-team Cook County tournament which starts today all know what it takes to win at this point in the summer.
No. 1 Palatine (25-6) is coming off its first state title in 20 years and a third-place finish in the Great Lakes Regional. No. 2 Arlington (20-11) has won 10 of the last 12 County crowns and was second last year.
No. 3 Elk Grove (17-12) lost most of the players from its first County title last year. But coach Brian Mucha has found plenty of reasons to see a repeat as realistic.
"I told our guys, 'We're the defending champs and we've seen everyone's No. 1 and 2 like Palatine (Clint Terry and Sean Stutzman)," Mucha said. "We've seen Arlington's top four, we've seen (Mount Prospect ace Steve) Danielak and Evanston threw two of their better pitchers at us.
"There's no one we haven't seen going in that can surprise us at all. I feel confident we can repeat. There is no clear-cut dominant team."
Today's four first-round games at 4 p.m. have No. 8 Northbrook against Palatine at Harper College, No. 7 Mount Prospect (9-15) against Arlington at Rec Park, No. 6 Morton Grove at No. 3 Elk Grove and No. 5 Glenview at No. 4 Evanston.
Wednesday's second-round games will also be at 4 p.m. at the higher seeds. Games Thursday through Saturday (championship at 11 a.m.) are at Rec Park in Arlington Heights with the County champion advancing to the state tournament hosted by Crystal Lake at McHenry County College.
And what might seem to be a minor difference usually has a major impact with all games going nine innings.
"Everything changes," said Palatine coach Jeff Ryder. "You try to prepare them for that but it's difficult.
"We haven't had to wear out pitchers at all, which has been great, and we have a lot of it."
Ryder said he hadn't decided between hard-throwing left-handers Terry, who is going to UIC, or Stutzman for the opener. Palatine's experience from last year's run includes catcher Tyler Gregory, outfielder Zenon Kolakowski, pitcher-outfielder Matt Johnsen, pitcher Jake Llanas and third baseman Eric Paulson.
Northbrook, which had a ruling knocking it out of the tourney for using ineligible players reversed Friday, has talented Wheeling seniors-to-be Matt Hart and Josh Matthys.
Elk Grove didn't have much returning from last year but has solid pitching with Illinois State-bound Julian Sipiora, Southern Illinois recruit Donny Duschinsky, Andy Keehn, Tyler Ford, Tim Massat and Adam Lenoci.
Arlington has pitching depth as well in lefty Phil Kerber, Jeremy Salzman, Brendan King and possibly John Coen, who has an injured left (glove) hand. Salzman was hit in the head with a line drive Friday in the Appleton (Wis.) tourney but a CAT scan determined Salzman was OK and can play, according to coach Lloyd Meyer.
Arlington also has a lot of experience with third baseman Jake Knauss, shortstop Thomas Kelly, catcher Kyle Kapka and versatile Ed Gerdes.
"We can play with people, but it gets down to pitching and defense," said Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer. "There are probably going to be some 18-17 scores."
But Arlington's opener wouldn't figure to be one of those against Mount Prospect's Danielak. The Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne signee has pitched well all summer - albeit with some tough luck which includes a recent no-decision with Arlington that ended in a 2-2 tie.
"We have enough talent where we can compete with anybody," said Prospect coach Tom Krumsee. "You can not take an inning off. Everyone has to step up mentally to be ready for the County tourney."