Baseball: Stankiewicz keeps Rolling Meadows’ perfect season going

Tyler Stankiewicz is enjoying a perfect sports transition at Rolling Meadows.

A supersectional basketball trip delayed Stankiewicz’s start to the baseball season and the junior right-hander didn’t make his first pitching appearance until Thursday afternoon. He held host Vernon Hills hitless in 4⅔ relief innings as Meadows rallied for a 4-3 nonconference win and improved to 10-0.

“It’s been a great year,” Stankiewicz said. “First with the basketball team and now it’s the same thing in baseball.”

Vernon Hills’ (3-7) led 3-0 when Stankiewicz came in to pitch. He walked six and hit a batter but left two runners stranded in the final 3 innings and four times overall.

“He did great and he knows how to win from basketball,” said senior Charlie Hoeper, whose pinch-hit RBI single in the fifth started Meadows’ comeback. “It was good to see him come out and compete like that.”

Vernon Hills’ aggressiveness on the bases and at the plate led to consecutive singles by Ethan Zyblut, Colin McMurray and David Biede in a 3-run second. Junior righty Robert Miller had a 1-hitter with 7 strikeouts and no walks through 4 innings.

“Robert was masterful on the mound,” said Cougars coach Pasquale Atteo. “I thought he dominated and his command was good. Robert is an extreme competitor. But baseball is a funny sport where things can go south super-fast.”

It started in the fifth when the lefty-hitting Hoeper, who pitched a 2-hitter Wednesday, grounded a two-out RBI single to center.

“I’m a contact hitter and that’s what I was thinking about in that at-bat,” Hoeper said.

Miller left the bases loaded with his ninth strikeout. But a one-out walk and two-base error on freshman Luke Schneider’s line single to right in the sixth made it 3-2 and Anthony Nuccio had a tying groundout to second.

McMurray made a diving stop at second on Will Ciccone’s grounder but the umpire ruled the throw pulled reliever Ken Kim off the bag at first. Consecutive walks to Quinn Hextall and Tony Romanacce put Meadows ahead.

“We have a common theme of everyone thinking, ‘What can I do to help the team win,’” said Meadows coach Matt Rice.

Stankiewicz left 2 runners in scoring position in the sixth on a groundout to Nuccio at third. He ended it with a comebacker after a dropped flyball and walk with two outs in the seventh.

“I wasn’t too nervous,” Stankiewicz said. “Not up until the last couple innings.”