Vikes pitch in and clinch
Jake Llanas and Clint Terry helped each other out Monday afternoon.
Most important, they helped Fremd win a share of its first Mid-Suburban West baseball title in eight years. Llanas pitched 31/3 innings of 2-hit relief for Terry, who had a tiebreaking RBI double in the sixth inning of a 6-5 victory.
"I was ready to go," said Llanas, a senior right-hander who improved to 2-1. "I felt confident. I threw strikes and had the defense behind me."
Fremd (17-9, 11-4) rallied from a 4-0 deficit after an inning to complete a two-game sweep of Conant (18-9, 10-5) and claim the West berth in Saturday's 11 a.m. title game at Rolling Meadows.
The Vikings won their eighth MSL division title and can claim it outright with a win Wednesday over Barrington. They also hold the tiebreaker of best record in West division games over Palatine (16-13, 9-5), which plays Barrington today and Schaumburg on Wednesday.
Fremd also beat Kentucky-bound Walt Wijas (4-5) for the second time this year.
"Our team has a lot of potential through the lineup," said Fremd shortstop Todd Dunham, who made a tough stop of Nate Rahn's one-hop shot and caught Derek Wojcik's liner for the last two outs. "We knew what to expect (with Wijas) and we never let up."
Conant had a 4-run lead after just five hitters against Terry. Mitch Comstock singled, Rahn reached on an error, Wojcik and Joe Belmonte had RBI singles and Otto Linderman bounced a 2-run single to left.
Fremd came right back in the second. Eric Paulson had an RBI single and Dunham lined a 1-2 pitch to left-center for a 2-run triple and a 4-4 tie when the relay throw was wild.
"That was huge," Terry said. "It's a 0-0 ballgame, a new game, and we took it from there."
Wijas should have had a perfect third but an error on a two-out strikeout set up Joey DePaolis' RBI single.
Conant tied it on a wild pitch in the fourth and Llanas came in with a runner at first and two outs.
Llanas gave up a single to Rahn but didn't allow another runner past first as he had a pickoff to end the fifth and Tyler Gregory threw out a runner trying to steal in the sixth.
"I have a lot of confidence in Jake," said Fremd coach Chris Piggott. "He's done that several times this year and I feel he can do it at any point in the game.
"He's done a great job all year in any situation we've put him in."
Mike Tauchman lined a double to left-center with one out in the sixth and Terry doubled on a 2-2 slider down the right-field line for a 6-5 lead.
"It was a low slider inside and I got good contact on it," Terry said. "I saw it coming because the second pitch was in the dirt and I knew he'd come back with it."
Wijas had 10 strikeouts and 6 walks (2 intentional) and allowed 4 earned runs as he threw 146 pitches in 62/3 innings.
"It was there, but errors (four) are hurting us right now," said Conant coach Jerry Song. "I asked him (Wijas) every inning how he was feeling and told him his pitch count was up there but he said he wanted to keep going."
Maine West 9, Deerfield 6: A 6-run fifth inning erased 5-2 deficit and kept Maine West (20-7, 10-5) in a first-place tie with Highland Park in the Central Suburban North with one game remaining.
Tommy Ross homered to start the comeback and Ryan Tuntland, Lucas Udischas and Paul Solka followed with consecutive doubles. Justin Johann singled to give Maine West a 6-5 lead.
Steve Zimmerman hit a 2-run homer in the second and Connor Skoczynski hit a solo homer in the seventh. Skoczynski, Ross and Tuntland had 3 hits apiece and Kane Hernandez threw a complete-game 6-hitter with 6 strikeouts and 4 walks and 4 earned runs.
Maine West hosts Deerfield at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Highland Park beat Maine East 3-1 Monday and they play again Wednesday.
Wheeling 6, Prospect 5: A wild seventh inning saw Wheeling (4-24, 3-11) pull out the MSL East win on Kevin Kowynia's 2-run single with the bases loaded and no outs.
Theo Yfantis took a 3-2 lead into the top of the seventh when Prospect (13-15, 6-9) rallied for 3 runs. But a single by Steve Yfantis (2-for-4), who got the win in relief, started Wheeling's rally capped by Kowynia (2-for-3, 3 RBI).
Miles Osei and Peter Bonahoom went 2-for-4 for Prospect.
BG 7, Meadows 4: J.P. Kulick went 6 innings for the MSL East victory for Buffalo Grove (11-16, 6-8) and James Hurley (2-for-3, 4 RBI) had a 2-run single in a 3-run fourth that sent Jon Carlson (6-1) to his first loss for Rolling Meadows (16-12, 12-3).
Carlson had 8 strikeouts and didn't give up a run until the fourth in a tuneup start for Saturday's MSL championship game. Carlson also went 3-for-4 with a 2-run homer and a double.
Kulick had 4 strikeouts and 1 walk. Dan Recht got the save by getting Carlson to ground into a game-ending double play.
Schaumburg 6, Hoffman 0: Dave Compitello threw a 4-hitter and went 2-for-4 and Mike Mistrata homered to tie the Schaumburg (14-12, 8-7) career record in the MSL West.
Mistrata's 21 homers tied 1986 graduate Kevin Hartsburg. Joe Dombek also homered for the Saxons.
Justin Harris went 2-for-3 for Hoffman (7-22, 3-12).
Hersey 6, Elk Grove 1: Chris James homered, doubled and had 2 RBI and Steve Danielak (7-2) threw a 4-hitter with 10 strikeouts and 1 walk for Hersey (16-16, 8-7) in the MSL East. Chris Polinski had bases-loaded triple in the first.
Carl Sugihara was 2-for-3 and Colin Semler had an RBI double for Elk Grove (18-14, 5-10).
Notre Dame 11, St. Viator 5: Julian Sipiora was 2-for-3 with 4 RBI for St. Viator (15-14, 5-10) in the East Suburban Catholic Conference loss. Mike Kane went 4-for-4 and Dan Fries was 3-for-5 with 2 RBI for Notre Dame (18-12, 10-7).