Baseball: Fremd clinches MSL West behind big games from Nelson brothers
Nelson Brothers deliver.
Chase and Cooper Nelson anchor the middle of the Fremd infield with Chase at second and Cooper at short. They have combined for 28 double plays this season.
The duo can also hit with Chase, who is a junior and bats first while Cooper, who is a senior, bats second. The brothers combined for four hits and drove in three runs to lead Fremd to a 9-2 win over Schaumburg Wednesday in Palatine.
The win allowed Fremd (24-1-1, 14-0) to officially clinch the MSL West title all to themselves. They had already earned a spot in the MSL title game on Monday when they beat Schaumburg 10-3.
The Vikings also secured the top seed at the Stevenson sectional. Fremd will host a regional and will play the winner of Schaumburg- Zion-Benton.
“It is awesome to win the conference,” said Fremd coach Chris Piggott, whose team will meet either Hersey or Prospect in the MSL title game on Friday, May 23rd.
“It was one of our goals at the beginning of the year. One of goals wasn’t to go undefeated. It was to win conference first.”
The Vikings have found different players to step up in every game and on Wednesday it was the Nelson brothers’ turn.
“We found a couple of holes and that ignited us,” Piggott said. “We were able to add on. One of our goals is to score first. When we do that, we have great success.”
The Nelsons got things going offensively for the Vikings in the third inning. Chase Nelson doubled with one out and came home on Cooper Nelson’s single. Cooper Nelson then scored on Caleb Yoon’s double to make it 2-0.
“It is awesome to play with my brother,” Chase Nelson said. “It is my last year with him. We are trying to end the season strong together.”
The Nelsons had a big hand in the three-run fifth for Fremd that opened the game up.
Vinny Panzino singled and Chase Nelson followed with a walk. Cooper Nelson then laid down a perfect bunt that he beat out for a hit. The throw to first sailed into right field, scoring Panzino and sending Chase Nelson to third, where he would later score on a wild pitch. Cooper Nelson would then score on Yoon’s grounder.
“It is awesome to play with Chase,” said Cooper Nelson, who will play at Wisconsin-Parkside. “I got to play with my older brother (Quinn). Being able to pass on what he passed on to me and leave it to Chase is special. He makes it so easy. We have that great chemistry.”
Fremd added three more runs in the sixth. Tyler Schader doubled home Cole Seidel, who had walked. Schader would come around to score on Chase Nelson’s triple. Chase was then able to score easily on Cooper’s sacrifice fly to make it 8-0.
Will Graba, who scattered four hits through the first six innings, picked up the complete game win. He allowed just one run as Schaumburg (8-20, 3-11) was able to push a run across in the top of the seventh thanks to a throwing error.
“I wanted to go the full seven today,” said Graba, who struck out 10 to improve to 8-0.
“It stung me a little bit last week when I had to come out. And I I wanted to get all seven in today.”
Schaumburg got two hits each from Lucas Cabay and Matt Williams.
“We had runners at second base quite a bit throughout this game, we just couldn’t get them in,” Schaumburg coach Kevin Garvey said. “Hitting with runners in position and limiting strikeouts is an issue we have had. We need to work on that and grow with that.”