Baseball: Lake Zurich holds off Fremd’s furious rally on bittersweet day for Piggott family
There wasn’t a more difficult seat to sit in Saturday in Palatine than the aluminum bleacher seat that Stephanie Piggott was in.
Piggott, sitting directly behind home plate in the top row of the bleachers, was watching her husband Chris, who is the head coach of Fremd’s baseball team, play in the regional final game against their youngest child, Jackson, who plays outfield for Lake Zurich.
“Knowing how hard my husband and his team has worked and that he is having the best season he has had in all the seasons he has coached, that makes it so difficult,” said Stephanie Piggott before the start of the game.
“And this is my son’s final season. He is also the final Piggott kid playing. It is a big day. I told both of them that I am cheering for both of them.”
Stephanie Piggott and a huge crowd at Fremd watched as eighth-seeded Lake Zurich built a 9-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh. Fremd, which was the top seed, then put together a fierce rally, cutting the lead to 9-8. The Vikings had the tying run on second when Jackson Piggott caught a solid shot to right field for the final out.
It is the first regional title for Lake Zurich (25-11) since 2021 and just the fifth in school history. The Bears, who have won 11 of their last 13 games under new head coach Mike Manno, will meet Mundelein in Wednesday’s Stevenson sectional at 2 p.m.
“It is a different school and different kids, but honestly it just comes down to the kids,” said Manno, who won 9 regional championships along with a state title and fourth place finish in his 16-year tenure at St. Viator.
“These kids have been awesome since day one. I said that this is the playbook for the work we need to put in. It is not what we are capable of, but what are you willing to do? And they have been willing to do it.”
Cash Kaczmarek, who had three hits including a pair of doubles along with four RBI and two runs scored, said his team has made vast improvements throughout the season.
“There has just been a shift in energy,” Kaczmarek said. “And it has really come from the bench. Everyone is cheering and everyone has bought in. We are locked in on every single pitch. And we believe in our system.”
Lake Zurich grabbed a 2-0 lead on an RBI single by Colin Chung and RBI double by Alex Toth. Fremd (26-5-1), which lost four of its last five games, cut the lead on back-to-back doubles by Johnny O’Brien and Caleb Yoon.
The Bears then appeared to break the game open.
Kaczmarek had a bases-loaded double to drive in three. He would later score on Chung’s sacrifice fly. Lake Zurich would add another run in each of the next three innings on an RBI walk by Carson Hamblin, an RBI double by AJ Foley and an RBI single by Kaczmarek to make it 9-1.
Fremd batted around in its half of the seventh. Back-to-back doubles by Chase and Copper Nelson got things started. Will Graba, who had two hits, had a two-run single. Dennis Boyd had an infield single to drive in another run while Vinny Panzino’s single drove in two more.
Chase Nelson then had a sacrifice fly to cut it to 9-8. But the Bears’ Nicholas Audit got a screaming fly ball hit right at Piggott to end the game.
“We had some opportunities to score some runs, and we just couldn’t do it,” Fremd coach Chris Piggott said. “But the way these seniors are, they battled to the end. That is kind of the culture we have right now because of this group starting a couple years ago. And that is what I am most proud of.”