Libertyville, Barton tops Mundelein 6-1

The emotional finale of the Libertyville-Mundelein baseball game Wednesday nearly guaranteed an especially spirited rematch Saturday morning.

So who started on the mound for Libertyville?

None other than 6-foot-5, 220-pound Troy Barton, an unofficial leader of the Wildcats' wild "Jungle" student section at boys basketball games and an exuberant kid who wears his emotions on his jersey sleeves.

Let the fun at the ol' ballpark begin.

"I just want to get the team pumped up," Barton said of his sometimes demonstrative demeanor on the mound. "If I strike three guys out in a row, I'm not going to just walk off the field. I can't do that."

Barton hustled off the field a winner Saturday, pitching a complete-game 2-hitter to lead host Libertyville to a 6-1 victory that hiked the Wildcats' record to 5-2 in the North Suburban Lake Division.

Libertyville then played Wauconda in a conference crossover and won 6-4 to improve to 15-5 overall. Mike Seefeldt led the way offensively for the Wildcats by going 3-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI.

Libertyville's win over Mundelein dropped the Mustangs to 17-4, 3-2.

"Not much to say," Mundelein coach Todd Parola said. "Their pitcher took it to us. I don't think we had three hard-hit balls, really. He dominated us."

Libertyville's win avenged its 4-3 loss three days earlier, when Mundelein scored the winning run in the last of the seventh. After the run scored - on an errant throw on Tyler Adams' sacrifice bunt - the Mustangs celebrated on the field, not far from where Wildcats second baseman A.J. Schurr lay sprawled after getting knocked over at first base by a sprinting Adams.

"Major League teams play 162 games and they celebrate on the field (after walk-off hits) and they all jump around," Parola said. "Our kids celebrated. Evidently, maybe we had a kid that celebrated in front of (Libertyville), which is completely unacceptable."

Libertyville used the game-ending play as fuel.

"There was no way we were going to lose today," Barton said. "(Mundelein) made us come alive. I mean, we've been good the whole year, but now we're better."

Barton came out firing, setting the tone with 2 strikeouts and a weak groundball back to the mound for an easy 1-2-3 top of the first.

After Libertyville's Tyler Schweigert led off the bottom of the inning with a double off the left-field fence and scored on Seefeldt's groundball, Barton struck out two more batters in the second.

"He waved to one of our guys after he struck him out," Mustangs shortstop/leadoff hitter Kevin Barber said. "That got us a little ticked off."

Chad Uhler led off the Libertyville fourth with a homer to left off Mundelein starter Colin Franklin to make it 2-0. The Wildcats then knocked out Franklin in the fifth, scoring 4 runs after two were out. Seefeldt had an RBI single, and Brad Martin greeted reliever Colton Tortorello with a 2-run double to make it a 6-0 game.

After Tortorello homered to right with one out in the sixth, he punched his chest as he touched home plate.

Barton then punched out the next hitter with a fastball, pumping up his team and the home fans.

"Pretty heated," Barber said of the game. "You got a lot of rivalry right there. Barton pitched really good, though. He was keeping us guessing the whole day. I tip my hat to him."

Barton finished with 9 strikeouts, walking two and hitting two batters on off-speed pitches. The only other hit he allowed was an infield single to Jay Mueller. Barton's curveball was working all day.

"It's been my pitch all year for the most part," the Eastern Illinois-bound righty said.

"It's vastly improved from last year," Wildcats coach Jim Schurr said. "He's really established good command of his curveball this year."