Historic win for Prospect’s Landwehr

Jack Landwehr had zeroed in on Prospect baseball history. But zero run support in his last two starts kept him from making history.

So, the Prospect senior ace was in familiar territory Monday when he was locked in a scoreless Mid-Suburban East duel with Rolling Meadows’ Matt Hendricks.

But when Landwehr went out for the bottom of the fifth it was with a 7-run lead. That was more than enough for the Illinois State-bound right-hander as he threw a 5-hitter and became Prospect’s career victories leader by a 7-0 final.

“Overall you can’t think that way,” Landwehr said of avoiding any adjustment in his approach after a pair of 1-0 losses. “I have to go out and pitch the way I usually pitch and do my part.”

Landwehr (3-2) did his part for the 22nd time in his three seasons in a Prospect (5-10, 2-2) uniform by striking out 10 and walking only two. He combined his fastball, changeup and slider/curve to throw 71 of his 108 pitches for strikes to surpass the 21 wins by Ryan Hantel from 2002-04.

Landwehr has allowed only 1 earned run in 38 innings for an 0.18 ERA. Hendricks had 2 of the hits as Meadows (11-5, 3-1) lost its second straight after a 9-game winning streak.

“Jack threw the ball great and I thought Matt threw the ball really well,” said Meadows coach Jim Lindeman. “When you have chances early against a pitcher of that quality you have to score when you get that opportunity.”

Landwehr left two runners on in the first with 2 strikeouts. In the second, Dan Hendricks singled, Mickey Wazorick got a bunt single when Landwehr slipped coming of the mound.

Mike Weingart, who started with Villanova-bound shortstop-pitcher Eric Lowe waiting for MRI results on a sore elbow, sacrificed. But Landwehr ended the threat with 2 more strikeouts.

“I was being aggressive again and that’s what I’ve done all year,” Landwehr said. “I haven’t walked a lot of guys and that’s been big, not putting guys on for free.”

Walks to A.J. Compton and Nico Witanen started Prospect’s 7-run fifth. A one-out wild pitch led to Landwehr’s second intentional walk and Dan Kavanaugh hit a hard grounder to second for a potential inning-ending double play.

But an error led to a run and RBI singles by shortstop Brad Gerdes (2-for-4) and Compton, a 2-run single by Jackson Wrede and a 2-run double by Tommy Flahaven.

“We’ve been struggling for quite awhile and Hendricks is a tough pitcher,” said Prospect coach Ross Giusti. “Our kids kept working the count and I thought we had some good early looks on him. Anything can happen when you put the ball in play.”

Landwehr and Gerdes turned a nice double play to end the fifth. Compton made a shutout-saving grab with a dive in right-center in the sixth.

“I went out and threw strikes and my fielders made plays,” Landwehr said. “Fortunately we put runs on the board.”

It’s been a record-setting formula for success for Jack Landwehr.