Lake Zurich strolls ahead

Eddie Szarkowicz, so sharp in 6 shutout innings, issued a four-pitch walk to open the bottom of the seventh.

Which drew a walk to the mound from Lake Zurich pitching coach Larry Lewis.

A second straight walk on four pitches drew another walk to the mound, this time from Bears head coach Gary Simon.

"He said, 'Give me one more hitter,' " Simon said of Szarkowicz. "I said OK."

Stevenson's walk-off warriors were up to it again.

"Yes, we were aware," Szarkowicz said with a nod and roll of the eyes of Stevenson's consecutive walk-off wins in the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Libertyville regional this week.

"I kept thinking to myself, 'I'm not letting that happen again.' If I had to take it upon myself, I would."

He did.

Szarkowicz survived a shaky seventh to pitch a complete game and lead Lake Zurich to a 6-3 win Thursday, securing the Bears' second berth in the summer league Elite Eight in four years.

Lake Zurich will play in the double-elimination tournament held at North Central College in Naperville and Benedictine University in Lisle next week. Play starts Monday and wraps up Thursday.

"They're the cardiac kids," Simon said of his Bears, who prevailed against Stevenson despite missing two travel players and four football players. "It's like an eight-headed snake. You cut one off and they grow a new head."

With his team short-handed, Szarkowicz delivered.

An incoming senior right-hander who pitched sparingly during the spring, he worked quickly throughout the game. He retired nine in a row after a two-out single to Max Golembo in the third. The string ended when the Patriots' Jacob Sholl doubled to deep right with two gone in the sixth.

"He's always shown flashes of being really good," Simon said of Szarkowicz. "Coach Lewis taught him a slider this year, and at the beginning of the year he didn't know how to control it. At the end of the year, he started to be able to throw that thing.

"He worked on all his pitches. And he's really tenacious. This is his sport, and he takes a lot of pride in it."

Lake Zurich built a 3-0 lead on Mike Lutz's sacrifice fly in the second, a Stevenson throwing error in the third and Mike Irgang's RBI double in the sixth.

The Bears added 3 runs, which turned out to be huge, in the seventh. Jake LaRue's 2-run triple with two out, after Mark Dorfman (2-for-3, double, 3 runs) was walked intentionally, was the big blow.

"Going out there (in the bottom of the seventh), I just wanted to throw strikes," said Szarkowicz, who threw just 74 pitches through six innings. "They weren't swinging so I wanted to get ahead of the guys."

Instead, back-to-back walks to Barry Saks and Adam Walton and a fielder's choice loaded the bases with none out.

"I really wanted to finish it," Szarkowicz said. "Whenever we go against Stevenson in anything, I want to give it my all."

Stevenson eventually plated all 3 runs, getting RBI groundouts from Steve Galanopoulos and Frank Dini, but the Patriots never got a hit in the inning.

"The good thing is, we put the pressure on in the seventh inning," Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca said. "But it was too little, too late. Their kid pitched a good game and kind of exposed what we need to work on if we want to compete next year. We have to have much better at-bats than we put up today."

Szarkowicz finished with a 4-hitter. The two seventh-inning walks were his only ones.

"My slider was really on," Szarkowicz said. "Guys were swinging over it, beating it into the ground. Basically, my best pitch was my fastball when I located it, and the slider was just a nice complement."

Lake Zurich played errorless ball, and right fielder Danny Minogue made a diving catch near the foul line in the fourth.

An appreciative Mazzuca stepped out of the dugout to yell, "Nice play, right."

"We played great defense," Szarkowicz said.

Stevenson graduated eight starters. The only veteran the Patriots will return - not counting starting pitcher Tyler Radtke - is speedy Michael Martin, who played center field Thursday and legged out an infield single leading off the bottom of the first and stole second.

"You can tell that he's had a full season of varsity at-bats," Mazzuca said. "He can run."