Mundelein’s pitchers heed the call
The Mundelein pitching staff has aced its first test. Without its ace.
On Monday, the Mustangs learned that ace lefty pitcher Ryan Borucki is out for good. He experienced soreness in his throwing arm a couple weeks ago, sat a few games and had an MRI on Friday to determine the exact problem.
The test revealed that he has ligament damage in his elbow that will require Tommy John surgery. Borucki, an Iowa recruit, can continue to bat and play first base, but he won’t be able to pitch again this season.
Mundelein played its first two games Tuesday and Wednesday since receiving the lousy news. But the Mustangs sure didn’t perform with the uncertainty and anguish of a team that had just lost its leader.
In fact, Jared Mandel and Matt Langlie, formerly the No. 2 and No. 3 pitchers respectively behind Borucki, stepped up and fully looked the part of an ace.
Langlie powered Mundelein to a decisive 8-1 win over visiting Lake Zurich on Wednesday while Mandel handed the same Bears a 2-0 loss Tuesday at their place.
The wins keep Mundelein undefeated in North Suburban Conference Lake Division play. The Mustangs are 15-2 overall and 4-0 in the Lake.
“It’s obviously not a good thing to have Ryan out,” said Langlie, who pushes his record on the mound to 4-1. “But we all realize that we’re going to have to step up. A lot of guys are going to get the opportunity to play in games, like Zach (Pawlowski) and Bryan (Wiener) and they’ll have to step it up. The pitching staff as a whole is going to have to try to replace Ryan as best we can. It’s going to be very difficult.
“I definitely feel a little more pressure, but at the same time, that keeps me going. I think that makes me better. I definitely have a little more push going. The heart is beating a little faster. It’s a good thing.”
Speaking of heart, Langlie showed Lake Zurich (10-4, 2-2) no love.
He limited the Bears to just 3 hits through the first 4 innings. He wound up giving up a total of 6 hits over 7 innings while registering 5 strikeouts. He also didn’t issue a single walk.
“Matt throws strikes and pitches to contact and if you’re a pitcher on this team, you’ve got to be happy because, in the infield, were playing good defense,” Mundelein coach Todd Parola said. “Losing a pitcher like Ryan is a big blow to everyone. It’s a tough loss. But this is a pretty resilient group. It has been from Day One and we’ve got a lot of guys who work hard and try to get better every day. We have a lot of other guys who can pitch so when their number is called, they’ll just have to be ready.”
Meanwhile, the Mustangs are also mindful that without a dominating pitcher like Borucki who can shut other teams down, the offense can no longer afford to turn in run-of-the-mill numbers.
They came up with just 4 hits on Wednesday but made the most of every opportunity. Twice in the second inning they got runners on off of Lake Zurich errors and both of those runners eventually scored. That was part of a 5-run second inning for Mundelein, which was up 6-1 going into the third.
“We knew we needed to come out and swing the bats and help back up Langlie,” said second baseman Chris Maranto, who drove in 2 runs and had a triple. “Losing Ryan is huge for us and we know we need to have pitchers step up, which they have so far. But we also know that we might not be able to count on that every day so we’re going to have to come out and swing it. We’ve been working hard on our swings in practice and today it really showed.”
Lake Zurich, which has lost its last three games, got 2 hits apiece out of Sean Eder, James DeGeorge and Jacob LaRue. But the Bears were rarely able to string enough hits together to put runners in scoring position.
“The last two games, we’ve come out flat,” Eder said. “We have to show some discipline. We’re not even-keel. We’re having ups and downs in games and the downs are killing us because when they happen we seem to lose all of our confidence.”
The Bears, who held a mini practice session in right field after the game that was heavy on running, had plenty to be confident about early on. They started the season with a 10-2 record.
“We had guys who had been playing well and now they’re not,” Lake Zurich coach Gary Simon said. “We didn’t make the plays we needed to make today, just stupid things. And (Mundelein) made some tough plays and it’s a lot easier to play loose when you’re ahead like they were.
“We’ll get it figured out, but we’ve got to get mentally tough. We’re not as mentally tough as I thought we were.”