Baseball: Hersey upsets Fremd in MSL title game

It was all about the arms for Hersey Friday in Palatine.

Keegan Luxem, Riley Blackwell and Lincoln Causero combined to stymie Fremd as the Huskies held on for a 3-2 victory to win the Mid-Suburban League championship game.

It was the second MSL championship in the last three years for the Huskies (25-7-1). Hersey used a great performance from Jeremy Allen two years ago to beat Barrington 1-0.

“Our pitching staff has helped carry us,” Hersey coach Wally Brownley said. “You saw three of the big dogs today. I can’t say enough about our staff. Keegan Luxem is a dude. Riley Blackwell is a dude. And Lincoln Causero is a dude. All three of them today and we have a couple more too.”

Luxem got the start and tossed four innings, allowing just one run. He struck out five and was able to pitch his way out of jams in two of those innings.

“I just tried to mix things up,” Luxem said. “We know that they are a good hitting team. That double play we had was key for me. I knew I was coming out. That was the plan to pitch 60-70 pitches. It was all good.”

Blackwell pitched the next 2-2/3 innings. He pitched his was out of trouble in the fifth thanks to a key double play started by Chuck Meister at short and a key turn at second by Brady Klehr.

“I was ready to come in whenever,” said Blackwell, who gave way to Causero, in the seventh after allowing a run.

“They know they can count on me to get outs. We got some hardware to put up in the hall and that’s all that matters.”

Causero entered with a 3-2 lead and Fremd challenging to tie or possibly win it with runners on second and third. Causero threw four pitches, all four breaking 90 miles an hour, and got a strikeout to clinch the victory.

“I didn’t know if I was coming in,” Causero said. “I went down there a couple times to warm up. At the end of the day, I got in and did what I had to do.”

Brownley said that his offense, which had six hits, came through when needed.

“Our offense was been good too,” Brownley said. “We just scratched when we needed to. It wasn’t beautiful, but it was effective.”

Hersey took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Klehr, who had two hits, singled on the first pitch of the game. He would then score on an errant pickoff attempt and then another throwing error at third, allowing him to trot home.

Fremd (26-3-1) was able to get out of trouble in the first and second innings thanks to a pair of double plays keyed by the Nelson brothers. Cooper Nelson made a pair of solid plays at short and tossed to brother Chase at second who was able to make the the turn to erase the Hersey threats.

Hersey took a 2-0 lead in the second. Meister led off with a walk and went to second on Drew Thomas’ single. The pair moved up on a wild pitch and Meister scored on Bennet McNeill’s sacrifice fly.

The Vikings were able to avoid disaster in that inning when third baseman Will Graba caught a line drive and then dove to double off the Hersey runner to keep the deficit at 2-0.

Fremd was able to get a run back in their half off of the inning when Tyler Schader singled home Graba, who had singled earlier to cut the lead to 2-1.

Hersey picked up a key insurance run in the sixth. McNeill had two out single and then stole second. After a walk, he raced home as Charlie Arvanitis was able to drop a single into left to score McNeill.

That run proved to be huge as Fremd mounted a rally in the seventh.

Schader led off with a walk and went to second on a wild pitch. Chase Nelson, who had two doubles on the day, then was hit by a pitch.

After a strikeout, Johnny O’Brien double down the right field line. Schader scooted home but Nelson was forced to stop a third when McNeill, who was playing right, was able to cut the ball off and fired perfectly back to home, stopping Nelson.

Causero then came on to get the key strikeout to end the threat and pick up the save.

“They pitched well,” said Fremd coach Chris Piggott whose team left eight runners on base, seven in scoring position.

“And when we were in scoring situations, they were able to shut us down. We couldn’t really get anything going and we had some chances.”

It was the second loss for Fremd in as many days for the Vikings after losing 8-2 to Cary-Grove 8-2 on Thursday. That despite losing just one game throughout the season up until Thursday.

But even though the Vikings lost to Hersey on Friday, the Vikings have a chance at Mid Suburban League history on Saturday.

Fremd had gone unbeaten during the regular season in MSL play and the Vikings have a makeup game in Saturday with Buffalo Grove. A win there would give the Vikings an undefeated regular season and become only the third MSL team to accomplish that feat.

“They know that,” said Piggott, whose team is the top seed in the Stevenson sectional.

“They know the history behind that. It would be great to get back on the right side of things.”