Palatine reclaims West lead

When Palatine had its Wednesday game rained out it gave Alex Miramontes the opportunity he wanted for four years.

Miramontes’ turn in the starting rotation was pushed back to Friday. For the first time in his high school career he would pitch against crosstown rival Fremd.

The high stakes involved between two teams battling for the Mid-Suburban West baseball title brought out a big crowd to Fremd despite the raw, windy and rainy conditions. It also brought out the best in Miramontes.

The right-hander who is headed to Roosevelt University threw a 4-hitter and allowed only 1 earned run as Palatine moved back into the West lead with an 8-4 victory.

“This is really what I wanted,” said Miramontes, who was originally supposed to start Thursday. “I was pretty pumped. This was a big game and it felt like a playoff game.”

Miramontes (6-1) had his fastball, slider and changeup working as he threw 69 of his 100 pitches for strikes. He had 5 strikeouts and 2 walks as Palatine (19-12, 9-4) took a half-game lead by beating defending MSL champion Fremd (14-12, 9-5) and ace Sean Stutzman for the second time in a week.

“His stuff was money today,” said Palatine second baseman Vince Portera, who was 2-for-2 with a double and a sacrifice. “He was getting groundballs (13 outs) and had good stuff.”

Palatine scored in the first inning on Joe Walsh’s two-out RBI single but had to fight through some adversity a day after its 7-game winning streak was snapped in an 8-inning loss to Schaumburg.

Fremd scored its first two runs without a hit and Stutzman (6-4) had 7 strikeouts through 4 innings.

“I pulled them together in the fourth inning and told them to focus on the things they can control,” said Palatine coach Paul Belo. “I felt at times we were willing to let our focus slide a little bit.”

Mike Czarnik started the fifth with a single and Portera sacrificed. After Stutzman got the eighth of his 9 strikeouts in 6 innings, infield singles by Kurt Becker and Jim Smearman (2-for-3) tied it at 2-2.

An errant throw to second on a potential inning-ending double-play ball put Palatine ahead to stay in the sixth and Portera dropped a two-out RBI single into short center.

“If we stick to our plan like coach always says (we’ll be fine),” said Portera. “The plan has been working lately so why go away from it.”

The Vikings didn’t get their first hit until Keith Giagnorio lined a one-out single to right in the fifth. They got within 4-3 in the sixth on K.J. Kinsella’s RBI single to left but Miramontes left the tying run at third on a strikeout.

“My two-seam (fastball) was working pretty well and I felt like I was bringing it,” Miramontes said.

The Pirates broke it open in the seventh with 2-run singles from Scott Schneberger and Jesse Bobbit. Zach Kolakowski had an RBI single for Fremd but Miramontes ended it with a strikeout.

“Our defense has been hurting us in our last couple of losses and it hurt us today, along with our lack of consistent hitting,” said Fremd coach Chris Piggott. “He came right at us today and we didn’t hit too many balls hard. They got the job done and we didn’t.”