Baseball: Postma blanks Prospect, pitches Barrington to MSL West title

Jack Postma picked the right time to have his best outing of the season for Barrington.

The sophomore right-hander fanned 8 while scattering three hits as he helped the Broncos blank Prospect 5-0 Wednesday to win the MSL West title.

“Besides the hits, I thought it was a polished outing,” said Postma, who did not allow a walk. “My stuff was really working and I knew I had my defense behind me. The division title is pretty fun to take home after an outing like that. But the job’s not finished yet.”

Barrington coach Paul Belo said Postma had a shinning moment for himself and his teammates.

“He (Postma) was clearly polished today,” Belo said. “And it clearly was his best outing of the year. He saved it for a great moment for our seniors. Postma has been an unselfish young man all year. He understands his role and he is consistently trying to get better.”

It was also the first MSL division title at Barrington for Belo, who came out of retirement from Palatine to lead the Broncos (19-10, 7-3).

“It is completely harder to win the division,” Belo said. “We split with three other teams and that tells you how much better the competition is when you divide it into upper and lower divisions. But there teams on the bottom half that are doing great things as well.”

After three scoreless innings by both teams, Barrington broke through with a trio of runs.

Max Wrzeszcz got the first Broncos hit to lead off the fourth, then Zach Ostergaard reached by beating out a bunt. Jackson Roberts walked to load the bases.

Andrew Whitney drilled a shot that was misplayed in the infield. The ball rolled to the right field corner, scoring all three runs.

“I just went in there and shortened my swing,” Whitney said, “And when it went to 2-0, I knew he was coming with a fastball. I got a lot of it, I just didn’t elevate it. But it didn’t matter because it got the job done.”

The Broncos added another run in their next at-bat. Quinn Blue singled and moved to second on Ryan Costello’s sacrifice bunt. Blue then scored easily on Ostergaard’s long double to make it 4-0.

Barrington was able to push one more run across in the seventh. Bowie Heintz, who reached on a throwing error, scored on Wrzeszcz’ single.

It was tough loss for Prospect (16-11, 6-4), which had an opportunity at the division title with their 9-5 win over Barrington on Monday.

But thanks to the new MSL playoff format, the Knights, who got two hits from Nick Benitez on Wednesday, still have an opportunity to win a MSL title.

“Their pitcher did a real good job,” Prospect coach Chris Hoffman said. “But we also did not give ourselves enough opportunities because we didn’t put enough balls in play. It is awesome to be in the playoffs for the conference title. The opportunity did not go our way today, but it will also be a good opportunity to prepare us moving forward.”

Prospect, which finished second in the West, will travel to Schaumburg on Monday to play in one of the conference semifinal matchups. Schaumburg (14-11, 7-3) won the East thanks to its 5-0 win over Elk Grove Wednesday.

That win moved Schaumburg into a tie for the East title with Rolling Meadows (18-10, 7-3). Schaumburg won the East division title thanks to fewer runs allowed in East games than Rolling Meadows.

That put Rolling Meadows second in the division and the Mustangs will travel to Barrington for the other semifinal game.

The winners of the two semifinal games will play Thursday at a site to be determined based on Monday’s winners.