Mundelein musters up impressive resume
Looks like it could be déjà vu for Mundelein when the sectional seeds come out next week.
The Mustangs earned the No. 1 seed in this area’s Class 4A sectional last year and have made a strong case for the top spot yet again.
Despite losing to Libertyville on Wednesday, Mundelein still sits in first place in the rugged North Suburban Conference Lake Division (7-1) and is also one of the few teams in the area that has already surpassed the 20-win plateau. The Mustangs are 21-4 overall.
“Mundelein will be right up there in a very stacked sectional. There are several teams that will be (in the discussion for the top seed),” said Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca, whose team ranked right behind Mundelein last year with the No. 2 seed. “Libertyville is 15-8, but they’ve proved to be one of the best teams in the area. Carmel is really tough and I think Glenbrook South is really good, too. We faced them earlier. They have a Division I pitcher.”
Stevenson, usually one of the heaviest hitters in the area, heads into the weekend with a 15-8 record and slightly behind its normal pace.
The Patriots have been struggling to put together any kind of consistency. They’re currently riding their longest winning streak of the season at three wins in a row.
“It’s been one of those seasons where we win a game, then we lose a game,” Mazzuca said. “We’re trying to put a long streak together now and get hot at the end of the year. But I think at this point, we can expect to get anywhere from a No 5 to a No. 7 seed.”
Hot hitters:
A key to Stevenson’s season-long three-game winning streak has been the clutch hitting of senior Jack Karras and sophomore Zach Novoselsky.
“They’ve hit the ball well, coming up with big hits with runners in scoring position,” Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca said. “Sometimes they’ve gotten big hits with two outs and they’ve also gotten some extra bases.
“Zach has done a really good job of adjusting to varsity pitching and Jack has come back from a slow start to give us what we always knew he could.”
Good cause:
There is never an admission charge to regular season high school baseball games, but Stevenson and Lake Zurich are breaking from the norm next week.
Sort of.
The Patriots and the Bears will face each other in back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday in Lake Zurich and Lincolnshire, respectively.
The “fee” for admission will be nonperishable food. The teams are taking place in a foot drive for the Vernon Area Food Bank and are encouraging fans to make a donation when they arrive at the field.
“We’ll have bins set up at both their field and our field,” Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca said. “We really want to stock up the food bank with a lot of food.”
The Patriots are hoping for a repeat of last year’s effort. They conducted their first-ever drive for the food bank over a two-game series with Lake Forest.
“The grounds crew was busy hauling away a lot of food for us last year,” Mazzuca said. “We were excited that Lake Zurich was interested in doing the drive with us this year. (Lake Zurich coach) Gary Simon even suggested that we get every team in the North Suburban Conference to participate in the drive next year.”
Going South(paw):
For Lake Zurich, left has been so right.
The Bears are 14-9 on the strength of a pitching staff that is dominated by left-handers, including Wyatt Spector, Austin Foote, Tanner Kiser and Kevin Bellew.
“This is the most left-handed pitchers I’ve ever had and it can be an advantage,” Lake Zurich coach Gary Simon said. “It can really help with catching guys (stealing). Runners can’t take that big lead off of first.”
In the last six years, Simon has had only two other southpaws: his son Brock, who is an all-conference player at the College of Lake County now and Brian Weist, who graduated last year.
Stingy starter:
Carmel ace Alex Young isn’t usually in a giving mood.
At least not on the mound.
In 23 innings of work thus far, he has allowed just one earned run, which amounts to a measly 0.30 earned run average. Young has also recorded 41 strikeouts and has yielded only three base hits all season, having faced 89 batters overall.
College stars:
Two former high school stars from Lake County are putting up impressive numbers at the college level.
Tanner Witt of Lake Zurich is a junior utility player at Kansas State. He’s started 43 of 45 games and is among the Wildcats’ top hitters.
Witt ranks second on the team in batting average, hits and doubles and leads the team in stolen bases.
“They’ve played him everywhere, at second base, shortstop, in the outfield and he’s done some pitching,” Lake Zurich coach Gary Simon said of Witt. “I really think that if he keeps it up, he’s got a chance of getting drafted.”
Meanwhile, former Carmel star Don Stopka is the starting first baseman at Rose-Hulman and he’s been quite busy.
He’s been on the receiving end of the leading double play team in all of college baseball. As of Tuesday, the Fighting Engineers had 62 double plays in 36 games (1.72 per game), which ranked No. 1 out of all Division I, II and III teams nationally.
The other top double-play teams are Illinois with 54 double plays in 43 games and North Georgia University with 55 in 48 games.