Not a bad win for Prospect
A bad hop and one big, bad inning put Prospect in a bad spot in Tuesday’s Mid-Suburban League crossover baseball showdown at Fremd.
But the Knights showed why they are now on the verge of clinching the East Division title. They gradually chipped away at their 5-run deficit and Kurt Donner came on in relief and shut the door.
And Shane Joyce’s tie-breaking 2-run double in a 4-run top of the seventh inning sent the Knights to an 11-8 victory.
“Nobody got down and nobody was throwing stuff,” Donner said of Fremd’s 8-run outburst in the third. “Everybody stayed up and we slowly worked back at the deficit and came out with the win.”
Donner (4-0) allowed just 2 hits in 4 shutout innings of relief as Prospect (19-5, 10-2) opened a lead of 3½ games on Elk Grove (13-10, 6-5) and Buffalo Grove (11-12, 6-5) and 4 games on Hersey (13-12, 6-6).
The Knights would clinch at least a share of the East title with a win today at Elk Grove and would claim it outright if Hersey also beat BG.
“Kurt really stepped up for us and I’m very proud of these kids for hanging in there,” said Prospect coach Ross Giusti. “The bad hop was turning point that was tough to overcome. It would have been easy to put our heads down but this is a real resilient team.”
Prospect took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth on a 2-run double by Jack Landwehr (3-for-4, 2 doubles) and an RBI single by Kevin Miller (2-for-2). Fremd (13-11, 8-4) went ahead 4-3 on successive RBI singles by Zach Kolakowski (2-for-4), Josh Jyawook (2-for-4), Sean Stutzman and Kurt Kaufman.
With two out, K.J. Kinsella’s grounder shot over the head of second baseman Matt Molini for an RBI single. Two pitches later Connor McWard hit a 3-run homer for an 8-3 lead.
But Prospect started its comeback in the fourth on Miller’s RBI single.
“I’ve got a lot of faith in our lineup and up and down the order I feel we have no holes,” Joyce said. “With our lineup 5 runs isn’t too much.”
Donner hadn’t pitched in 2½ weeks but Molini turned a double play to end a threat in the fourth. Donner pitched around McWard’s leadoff double in the sixth and Molini and shortstop Luke Bergman turned a double play in the seventh.
“I was just going out to work low and have my defense do the job for me,” said Donner, who started as the catcher and threw out a runner trying to steal. “I knew our offense would step up and put runs on the board.”
Molini’s two-out, 2-run single in the sixth off Fremd starter Jack Andersen made it 8-7. Brett Tudela came in and got Peter Bonahoom on a fly to deep left-center, but the Knights tied it in the seventh on Landwehr’s single, Niko Whitanen’s stolen base and Brian Bauer’s RBI single.
A one-out single by Donner and walk to Kevin Miller brought up Joyce. The No. 9 hitter fell behind 0-2 in the count but lined a 2-2 pitch from Jason English into right-center for a 10-8 lead.
“I never lost confidence or felt I was going down,” Joyce said. “I had to put up a fighting chance and I wasn’t going to let us lose.”
Bergman followed with a sacrifice fly as Fremd fell a half-game behind Palatine (18-11, 8-3) in the West.
“You can’t give a good team four and five outs and that’s what we were doing,” said Fremd assistant coach Brian Smith. “We had some missed opportunities and got some momentum there and didn’t put them away. They can flat-out swing it.”