Baseball: Prospect's rally forces to-be-continued vs. Barrington
The fact that darkness ended the game an 8-8 tie between Barrington and Prospect Friday in Mount Prospect was fitting.
Both teams came into the game leading their respective divisions with 5-0 records. But on this occasion they at times played like they were closer to the bottom of the division, combining for 10 errors while using 10 pitchers.
The teams will most likely come back on Tuesday to settle the outcome.
It also took a spectacular throw by Barrington left fielder to send the game into extra innings.
Blake Gosswein gunned down Prospect pinch runner Ben Lindell, who attempted to score from second base after a wild pitch and a throw to third that sailed into left field for the final out of the seventh in the yet-to-be completed game.
"I had to send him," Prospect coach Ross Giusti said. "I am really proud of my kids. Even when we were down, we were battling. It was crazy out there for both teams."
And it was especially wild in the bottom of the seventh, when Prospect (8-6, 5-0) rallied for 4 runs.
The Knights did it thanks to consecutive singles by Anthony Catalano, Nick Ergostolo and Richie Baczek that got things rolling. A sacrifice fly made it 8-5 with runners on the corners.
Barrington (15-4, 5-0) thought it had the game won - twice.
The first time, it was on what looked to be a double play on a groundball up the middle where the Broncos appeared to step on second and throw to first in plenty of time. But the umpires ruled that Barrington missed stepping on second base, so a run scored and made it 8-6.
A hit batter put runners on first and second with two outs. Jake Meyer then struck out Nick DeCapri. But the ball bounded into the dirt and Barrington catcher Eric Kozlowski retrieved it quickly and went to tag DeCapri, who then knocked the ball loose and beat the throw to first while another run scored to make it 8-7.
Ryan Roggeman then drilled a single to right, tying the game at 8-8.
"I am proud of the way our team came back in the seventh inning," said Prospect's Grant Whitebloom, who had 3 hits and reached base 5 times. "We could have died down. But that speaks volumes about our team. We just have a bunch of kids that want to come out here and compete."
Barrington also rallied twice to tie earlier in the game and pulled ahead in the last two innings to open up an 8-4 lead.
"I like what we did out there today," Barrington coach Pat Wire said. "I have no regrets on how it played out. We played probably one of worst games, but we were in position to win. Maybe we didn't play perfectly, but our heart was unquestioned."
Tyler Acosta, who had been battling a bad back, returned to the Broncos lineup and had an RBI triple, a single and scored 3 runs.
"It was a crazy game," Acosta said. "You don't expect those kind of finishes. Especially that it ended in darkness."
Kozlowski and Clark Elliott also had 2 hits each for Barrington. Jeff Korus had double and Dave Mitchell had a RBI double and 2 walks.
Baczek had 3 hits for Prospect while Roggeman and Catalano each had 2 hits for the Knights.
The suspended outcome leaves Prospect in first place in the MSL East, as both Buffalo Grove and Wheeling have 1 loss.