Baseball: Prospect rallies from 5 down to upend Hersey

With the Prospect fans singing “Staying Alive” at times Wednesday in Mt. Prospect, the Knights did just that.

Prospect spotted Hersey a 5-0 lead. But Prospect reliever Dominic Graf shut the door on the Huskies and the Knights rallied for a 10-9 win.

Despite being just the second Mid-Suburban League game for both teams, It was a much needed win for Prospect (7-4-1, 1-1) over Hersey in the MSL East race. That’s because Hersey had knocked off Prospect 9-7 on Monday.

“I really like our offense,” Prospect coach Ross Giusti said. “We can really cause chaos. This is the third time this year that we have come back after being down in a game by five runs or more. It is a credit to these kids. They don’t give up.”

It was a wild first at-bat for both teams.

Hersey (10-2-1, 1-1) loaded the bases to start as Brady Klehr and Chuck Meister each singled and Diego Garcia walked. Klehr would then scored on a wild pitch, and after a walk to Mikey Sokan, Drew Thomas followed with an RBI walk.

After Wyatt Groberski hit a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0, Marcus Krecu was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Bennet McNeill then reached on an infield error to score a pair to make it 5-0.

Prospect did get a couple runs back in the bottom half of the first.

The Knights loaded the bases on a single by Aiden Nelson and walks to Louie Caldrone and John Aquino. Nelson scored on Matt Jackson’s fielder choice and Caldrone scored on Jack Davis’ RBI single to cut the deficit to 5-2.

Hersey got a run back in the second. Again the Huskies loaded the bases, and Thomas had an RBI single to drive in Meister, who led off the inning with a single.

Prospect fought back to tie the game at 6-6 in the fourth inning.

The Knights loaded the bases to begin the inning. Logan Nordentoft walked, Michael Foley reached on an infield single and Nelson reached on an infield error.

Caldrone dribbled one in front of the mound and reached on a single as the only defensive option was to throw home. But the throw was late, enabling Nordentoft to score, and Foley came home on the errant throw. Nelson and Caldrone then both tallied when John Bazula doubled off the wall.

Prospect used that momentum to take the lead in the fifth. Caldrone came up with a two-out single to drive home both Nordentoft and Foley, who had walked to make it 8-6.

Hersey finally was able to get to Dominic Graf, who had shut the Huskies down in the second and retired 11 consecutive batters. Sokan’s two-out single scored both McNeil and Klehr, who both had singled earlier, to tie the game at 8-8.

Prospect regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Nordentoft singled home Davis, who had reached on a fielder’s choice. Ken Munao, who had walked, would later score on a wild pitch to make it 10-8.

Graf struck out the first two batters to lead off the seventh. Hersey then made it interesting.

McNeill doubled and Klehr walked, and both players moved up after a wild pitch. McNeill then scored on another wild pitch to cut the deficit to one. With Klehr on third, Meister was hit by a pitch before Graf got a ground out to first to end the game.

“I thought there was a chance that I could come on in relief today,” said Graf, who is a senior. “I just went with the groove. I got on the mound and threw the fastball and trusted the defense. And my defense played great today.”

Hersey coach Wally Brownley was disappointed his team couldn’t hold on after the early lead.

“One of the strong points for us early in the season was we were throwing tons of strikes,” Brownley said. “Offensively, we were also putting the ball in play. That’s winning baseball. But our last two games, we have been shooting ourselves in the foot.”