Baseball: Fremd sweeps Barrington, keeps unbeaten season going
Johnny O’Brien and Will Graba helped Fremd put the MSL West title in a vice grip Wednesday in Palatine.
O’Brien had three hits and two RBI while Graba pitched six scoreless innings as the Vikings knocked off Barrington 5-1.
The win gave Fremd (21-0-1, 11-0) a sweep over Barrington after the Vikings beat the Broncos 4-3 on Monday. It also gave Fremd a commanding three-game lead in the MSL West over Barrington (16-7-1, 8-3) with five conference games to play.
“Everybody is contributing up and down the lineup,” Fremd coach Chris Piggott said. “It is fun to see how they are having fun. We are just out there playing and whatever happens, happens.”
Fremd scored its first runs thanks to a pair of sacrifice flies, scoring Chase Nelson on both occasions.
In the first, Nelson singled and made his way to third on a throwing error and a wild pitch. He then scored on O’Brien’s sacrifice fly.
In the third, Nelson walked and made his way to third. He then scored on a deep fly by Caleb Yoon to make it 2-0.
The Vikings doubled their lead in the fifth. Back-to-back doubles by O’Brien and Yoon accounted for one run. Courtesy runner Declan Gallicho, who was running for Yoon, scored on Will Klimas’ sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
Meanwhile, Graba kept the Broncos in check through the first five innings. The junior had scattered just two hits through that span, keeping Barrington off balance with his pitching.
Barrington did finally get things going against Graba in the sixth. But some great defense by Fremd thwarted that attempt.
Fremd’s Vinny Panzino recovered Jackson Cavaliero’s double to right. Panzino then made a great cutoff throw to Nelson, who then made even a better throw home to Yoon to cut down Julian Ashley-Friedman at the plate.
Fremd added to its lead in its half of the inning. Panzino walked, took second and third on pitches into the dirt and then scored on O’Brien’s third hit to make it 5-0.
“It was a nice day,” O’Brien said. “They have a very good team and their freshman pitcher throws real hard. They told us to load back early and try to pull the ball and it will go up the middle naturally.”
Barrington took another shot at getting back in the game in the seventh.
Peter Ensign doubled and came home on Chad Heick’s two-out single. The Broncos loaded the bases but Robby Seifert, who came on in relief, got a comebacker to end the game.
“I wanted to go the full seven, but I just ran out of gas with two outs,” said Graba, who upped his record to 7-0. “I think I did a good job out there. I was just doing my thing up there and pitching my game.”
Piggott loves the way his team is playing.
“We played real well today,” Piggott said. “We pitched well. We played great defense. We manufactured some runs and had some timely hitting.”
Barrington coach Pat Wire, who has never been swept by a MSL West team in his 13 seasons as head coach, said he thought his team just couldn’t get things going until late.
“The wind was blowing in and it was not good hitting conditions,” Wire said. “I didn’t think we played poorly, I think we played well. We just did not play well enough. They were better than us.”