Lake Zurich 3, Vernon Hills 0

No-hitters are an uncommon treat in baseball, but a no-hitter in the conference championship is a rare delicacy.

Lake Zurich pitcher Joey DeBernardis turned in the performance of his life, as he no-hit host Vernon Hills in leading the Bears to a 3-0 win in the North Suburban Conference championship game Thursday.

DeBernardis (7-2) struck out eight and walked three, needing only 82 pitches to complete his gem.

It was the first NSC title for Lake Zurich (25-6).

"What a great game for Joey," Bears coach Gary Simon said. "Vernon Hills is a quality team and he shut them down.

"Joey had it going all game long and we were lucky he pitched so well."

By the numbers, luck seemed to have little to do with it, as Lake Zurich turned in 6 hits.

The Bears' opportune base-running was also helpful, as two of Lake Zurich's runs came off Vernon Hills miscues.

In the Lake Zurich second inning, Dan Zummo led off with a single and eventually scored on a passed ball for the game's first run.

The fifth inning told a similar story, as a botched throw to first on a routine groundball allowed Brock Simon to score the game's final run.

"There's no doubt that we didn't play our best game defensively," Vernon Hills coach Jason Czarnecki said. "There were (mistakes) that were very costly for us. We usually anticipate plays and we did not do that today, so we gave up runs we usually don't."

Coincidentally, this year's game was almost a mirror image of last year's, which saw Vernon Hills beat Lake Zurich 1-0. Cougars' ace Brad Schnitzer gave up just 1 hit.

This year, the Bears paid back Schnitzer, who struck out five and allowed just 1 earned run.

"We knew Schnitzer one-hit us last year, but we hit him pretty well today," DeBernardis said. "We knew he liked to throw off-speed, so we just stood in the back of the batter's box and waited for his pitches to come to us."

Lake Zurich's Reid Bergstrom had the game's only extra-base hit. In the third, he pounded a ground-rule double over the center-field fence. DeBernardis helped his own cause by driving in Bergstrom (2-for-4) with a sacrifice bunt.

With the conference championship, Lake Zurich's seniors have added to their long list of accolades.

"This senior class has been great for us," Simon said. "When they were freshmen, they won the Fox Valley Conference. As sophomores, they won the NSC, and they won the NSC Lake as juniors. It's just fitting that they won the conference this year."