Prospect overpowers Waukegan
Prospect manufactured its offense early and turned on the power late in its Fremd Class 4A baseball regional semifinal against Waukegan on Friday.
Four-run innings in the first and sixth sent the Knights, the third seed in the Barrington sectional, to an 11-1 victory that ended an inning early in Palatine.
Jack Landwehr (11-2) threw a complete-game 4-hitter and hit the game-ending homer in the sixth. The inning also saw Peter Bonahoom also hit a 2-run blast to set the Prospect (22-8) career record with 20 and Luke Bergman hit a solo homer with two outs.
“Waukegan was an aggressive group of hitters and they were a team we weren’t going to take for granted,” said Prospect coach Ross Giusti, whose team hadn’t played since beating Palatine for the Mid-Suburban League title last Saturday. “They came to play and they played well against a pretty good Lake Forest team (Monday).
“There are always concerns when you have a lot of momentum going and all of a sudden you take six days off. We had to come out and play the way we’re capable of playing.”
Kurt Donner had 2 doubles and 3 RBI and Brian Bauer had 2 doubles. Bergman had 2 hits and 2 RBI, Matt Molini was 2-for-4 with a double and Landwehr had 2 RBI.
Landwehr allowed his only run in the second inning and had 8 strikeouts and 1 walk.
“He was in command and he had all of his pitches working,” Giusti said. “He just kind of did his thing.”
Bonahoom’s homer broke the Prospect career mark of 19 by Matt Davis (2003-05).
Prospect will play in Monday’s 10 a.m. title game against the winner of today’s 11 a.m. semifinal betweek No. 6 Rolling Meadows (16-15) and No. 12 Fremd (19-13).
Leyden 15, Maine East 1 (5 inn.): Leyden gave up a hit to the first batter and a run in the first inning in the Niles North 4A regional semifinal.
That was all senior Justin Stawychny (6-1) gave up as Leyden, the top seed in the Glenbrook South sectional, broke open a tie game with a 9-run third inning against No. 17 Maine East.
Stawychny had 10 strikeouts and no walks and the run he allowed was unearned. Stawychny struck out the side in the final two innings.
Leyden (26-5) had only 7 hits but got triples from John Marino (2 RBI) and Eli Perez and doubles from Adrian Ruiz (2 RBI) and Tyler Lenon.
“It seemed like a day where the ball definitely wasn’t going to carry,” said Leyden coach Gary Wolf. “In the first inning we were lifting the ball in the air instead of staying on top and we weren’t very patient.
“Then we took some walks, had some key hits and coupled with some errors the floodgates opened for us.”
Leyden will play in Monday’s 11 a.m. regional final against the winner of today’s 10 a.m. semifinal between No. 8 Von Steuben and No. 12 Niles North.
Deerfield 3, Stevenson 2: Stevenson, last year’s third-place finisher in 4A and the No. 2 seed in the Barrington sectional, was stunned by No. 15 Deerfield in the Highland Park semifinal.
Deerfield will play for the regional title against the winner of today’s 11 a.m. semifinal between No. 7 St. Viator and No. 11 Highland Park.
Lyons 3, Bartlett 0: In a 4A Schaumburg regional semifinal, Connor Cuff threw a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts for Lyons, the top seed in the St. Charles North sectional.
Lyons will play in Monday’s regional final against the winner of today’s 11 a.m. semifinal between No. 8 Elk Grove (17-12) and No. 10 Schaumburg (15-12).