Baseball: Belo, Barrington sweep Palatine

Paul Belo’s return to Palatine was a successful one.

Belo, who was named head coach of Barrington after retiring from Palatine two years ago, directed Barrington to a six-inning 12-2 win over the Pirates Wednesday in Palatine.

The victory gave Barrington (16-9, 6-2) the two-game sweep over Palatine after the Broncos beat the Pirates 13-5 Tuesday.

Belo, who was managing from the first base dugout in Palatine after 21 years in the third base dugout, said it was a strange feeling returning to his former home field.

“I always knew that the first base dugout was colder,” Belo said. “And it was today. It was great to be back here.”

It was big offensive day for the Broncos, who lead Prospect by one game in the MSL West. The two teams meet next week to wrap up the regular MSL West season.

Barrington, which banged out 12 hits, had nine different players with hits, with three players having multiple hit games.

“Our guys did a nice job of splitting the gaps,” Belo said. “Our two-strike hitting was really a key. So was out two-out hitting. We have worked on in terms of wining the backside of the field first before we think about the pull side. And it’s an approach that we have taken in practice from the first day I took over here.”

Barrington jumped out to a 2-0 in its first at-bat.

Max Wrzeszcz lead off the game by reaching on a throwing error. He was quickly bunted to second by Zach Ostergaard. Wrzeszcz then came home to score on Jackson Roberts’ single to center. Drew Whitney plated Roberts on a double to make it 2-0.

The Broncos added a run in the third. Ostergaard walked, stole second, went to third on a passed ball and scored on Roberts’ single to make it 3-0.

“We are really starting to heat up,” Roberts said. “And that feels great. We needed this one bad. We are really happy for coach. This was big, especially for him and for all of us. It was big for our confidence.”

Palatine put together an opportunity to climb back into the game in the bottom half of the inning.

Maddux Heilman reached on a fielder’s choice. Joey Kurey singled and Anthony DeSalvo drew a two-out walk to load the bases. The runners all moved up on a passed ball, which scored Heilman. But Jack Postma, who would strike out 8 just over five innings, fanned the next batter to end the threat.

Barrington poured it on the next three innings.

The Broncos scored three runs in the fourth, with all the hits and runs coming after two were out. Quinn Blue had an RBI single, scoring Joseph Mueller, who had doubled. Wrzeszcz and Ostergaard then each doubled to make it 6-2.

The Broncos scored two runs with two outs in its next at-bat. Mueller raked a double scoring Will Steffens and Kayden Schumacher to make it 8-2.

“I think we had a lot of team chemistry today,” Mueller said. “And I think that a lot of our rallies started from one big hit.”

Palatine had an opportunity to close the gap in the bottom of the fifth. The Pirates loaded the bases with no outs on consecutive singles by Ryan Christopher, Heilman and Kurey. But Palatine could only manage one run when Sam Healey walked.

Barrington then closed out the game in the top of the sixth. The Broncos strung together five consecutive singles which led to 4 runs.

“I knew when the umpire was calling that high up strikes it was going to be a struggle, especially with a guy like (Jack) Postma up there,” Palatine coach Brett Carroll said. “But we didn’t do ourselves any favors either. They took every advantage, both in this game and the first game as well.”