Baseball: Larsen pitches Vernon Hills to victory

Brad Larsen struck out 10 in a complete-game effort, and Vernon Hills' baseball team beat Maine West 7-1 in Central Suburban League play Thursday.

Larsen allowed just 5 hits and 1 walk. Brennan Reback had 2 hits and was on base three times for the Cougars (15-12-1, 8-5). Joe Rangel reached base safely in all four at-bats, and Drew Winegarder and Nick Marras each drove in 2 runs.

Grayslake Central 4, Lakes 1: Clay Stoffel tossed 4 innings of shutout baseball, as the host Rams won the Northern Lake County game.

The game was started on Wednesday and both teams played to a 1-1 draw through 3 innings, and the game was then suspended by rain. Ray Bradley tossed the 3 innings on Wednesday allowing 1 run on 3 hits with 3 strikeouts. Stoffel scattered 4 hits striking out one. Combined, the juniors walked no one.

Offensively for Grayslake Central (6-7-1 NLCC), Benton Troehler had a double and single and 1 RBI, and Coby Moe plated Brandon Mikes with an RBI double.

Lakes fell to 8-7-1 in the NLCC.

Grant 7, Wauconda 1: Chris Nesterowicz went the distance on the mound, Ben Kusiak was 3-for-4 with 2 stolen bases and an RBI, and Grant picked up the Northern Lake couny win.

Nolan Unger finished 2-for-3 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI for Grant (15-10,10-4). Nesterowicz (2-0) struck out four.

Dan Sperling was 2-for-3 with a double for Wauconda (10-12, 6-7).

Carmel 2, Benet 1: Jack Lubor was the winning pitcher in the East Suburban Catholic Conference game.

Eddie Pietschmann (2-for-4, 2 RBI), Tony Baumgart (2-for-3, run) and Aiden Zawaski (1-for-3, run) led the way offensively for the Corsairs, who improved to 14-7 and 9-4 in ther ESCC.

Libertyville 13, Sauk Valley 0: At Miller Park in Milwaukee, six pitchers - Caleb Haddon, Scott Hay, Billy Krumm, Dan Richardson, Scott Bonebrake and Marco Scopacasa - combined on a 3-hit shutout with 9 strikeouts.

Libertyville (23-6) was paced offensively by Tommy Rigali (3-for-4, 2 RBI), Tim Jean (2-for-2), Trent Jean (2-for-4, triple, 3 RBI) and Ben Arnold (2-for-2, triple). Micah Holzworth and Jackson Petersen also tripled in the win.

Grayslake North 7, Zion-Benton 3: Nick Lovitsch went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI, and the Knights won in nonconference action.

Grayslake North (18-7) also got 2 hits apiece from Andrew Keaskowski (2 RBI) and Danny Yates, while Sebastian Sancen doubled. Yates pitched 5 innings for the win and did not allow an earned run.