Depth helps Palatine work out of this jam

Palatine hasn't been sidetracked in its Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Phil Lawler Summer Classic regional tournament even though some of its best players have been sidelined with injuries.

Jim Smearman jammed his fingers in football Wednesday morning and was unable to play along with Cody Bobbit and Dan Haze in the afternoon semifinal against 11th seed Barrington.

But David Schalla went 6 solid innings for his second win in three days and Elliot Brustad, Joe Walsh and Mike Czarnik came through with big hits as second-seed Palatine (20-5) won 8-4.

"We do have some young players who are not afraid of being in big situations," said Palatine coach Paul Belo, "and are certainly willing to come through."

Belo hopes the Pirates can do it again in today's 4 p.m. title game against sixth-seed Maine South, which beat No. 4 Niles West 12-0 in 5 innings. The winner advances to next week's Elite Eight.

Schalla allowed 3 runs on 6 hits with 3 strikeouts and 3 walks. He threw only 78 pitches after throwing 43 in Monday's relief win.

Palatine took a 3-0 lead in the first when Scott Schneberger walked, Kurt Becker doubled and Walsh delivered a 2-run double off the right-field fence. Czarnik followed with an RBI single.

Barrington got within 3-2 but Brustad had a 2-run single in the fourth and an RBI double in the fifth. A wild throw on Czarnik's swinging bunt led to 2 runs in the sixth.

Belo said Eric Scheuerman would start today for Palatine.

Prospect regionalThird seed Prospect and fifth seed Conant saw their summer end with tough semifinal losses.A 2-run sixth gave No. 1 Streamwood a 4-2 win over Conant (10-4) and a seventh-inning run gave No. 7 Dundee-Crown a 7-6 win over Prospect (18-4). Streamwood and D-C play for the title at 4 p.m. today.Art Sutter pitched 52/3 solid innings but Conant coach Jerry Song said a couple of tough-hop grounders helped Streamwood in the sixth."Art did a very good job," Song said. "They didn't hit the ball hard at all but fundamentally they're pretty good and they put the ball in play in places our guys weren't."Mike Passaro's line single to left helped Conant threaten with runners at second and third with two out in the seventh."There's a lot of potential there," Song said of his team.Prospect took a 2-0 lead in the first but D-C rallied to take a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the sixth. A two-out RBI double by Brad Coffman and a 2-run homer by Steve Dazzo tied the game.Dazzo nearly got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the seventh with 2 strikeouts but D-C got a tiebreaking walk on a 3-2 pitch. Prospect's first-and-second threat in the bottom of the inning ended on a strikeout."We squandered some opportunities (early) and couldn't get untracked," said Prospect coach Ross Giusti. "Brian Bauer pitched outstanding (5 strikeouts in 5 innings). He had good control and got ground balls for us all day. He pitched well enough to win."The kids played great and their attitude was outstanding."