Baseball: Lake Zurich’s 6-run fifth inning knocks out Mundelein
Josh Marzec and Lake Zurich settled down and then settled in Wednesday.
The Bears used a huge escape act and then used it for a 9-3 win over Mundelein in the semifinals of the Class 4A Stevenson sectional in a game played at Vernon Hills due to poor field conditions in Lincolnshire.
Lake Zurich (26-12), which is seeded eighth and has won 13 of its last 15 games, will meet Libertyville/Prospect in Saturday’s sectional final at Stevenson at 11 a.m.
“We told the parents that hopefully they would be proud of the product that we put on the field at the end of the year,” said Lake Zurich coach Mike Manno, who is in his first season as head coach of the Bears.
“And I think that the kids have worked so hard so people are proud of them. I won’t say we are surprised because we built for this. And the kids have bought in.”
Marzec and Lake Zurich got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the first.
Marzec got a squib hit right in front of the plate which catcher A.J. Foley recovered quickly and dove to tag out a sliding Johnny Weiss. Audit then induced a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.
Using that momentum, Lake Zurich came back in the top of the second to claim a 2-0 lead. Alex Toth’s two-out single slid just past the outstretched glove of the pitcher and then past a diving shortstop to drive home Jackson Piggott, who had walked, and Blake Zabel, who had singled.
The Bears increased their lead to 3-0 in their next at bat, scoring a run without a hit. Cash Kaczmarek walked, went to second on another walk, and to third on a sacrifice bunt by Colin Chung. Hamblin then scored on Piggott’s deep fly to right.
Mundelein (23-11-2) rallied to tie the game in its half of the third, thanks to the speed of Weiss. The senior beat out a hard hit ground ball to third. After Nick Szalony was hit by a pitch, Caden Earling doubled to right to score a run. Brandon Marano’s sacrifice fly scored Szalony, and Jake Junia tripled to tie the game at 3-3.
Lake Zurich broke the game open in the fifth. The Bears scored six runs thanks to four Mundelein walks, two wild pitches along with RBI singles by Chung, Dylan Fogelson, Foley and Hamblin to make it 9-3.
“The team’s overall energy is incredible,” Chung said. “Everyone is feeding off each other and we are just making plays.”
Meanwhile, Marzec, who struggled a bit on the bump, became much more comfortable. He did not allow a run in his final 3 1/3 innings and allowed just three base runners.
“I had a little bit of jitters early in the game,” Marzec said. “Once the game got going, I started calming myself down. The guys hitting behind me just made it so much easier.”
Mundelein coach Randy Lerner said walks and the inability to score in the first inning hurt his team.
“You just don’t give yourself a lot of room for error when you do that,” Lerner said. “Give Marzec a lot of credit for pitching out of that first inning. Anytime you don’t get to the last day of the season it is not where you want to be. It was a good season this year and this is one of the best senior classes I have had.”