Baseball: Prospect pulls away from Schaumburg, reaches MSL championship game
It may have taken an extra day for Prospect, but the Knights will get another shot at a Mid-Suburban League baseball championship with its 10-1 win at MSL East co-champion Schaumburg Tuesday afternoon.
The Pirates became the second team to earn a ticket to Barrington where they'll face the West Division champion Broncos (21-11) Thursday afternoon in the title game. Barrington bested the East's other titlist Rolling Meadows (19-11) 2-0 on Monday to set up the third meeting in 10 days between the top two teams in the West.
Each squad won on the road in the first two meetings.
"We did a good job of taking advantage of situational opportunities especially with runners on base and gave ourselves opportunities," Prospect Coach Chris Hoffman said.
This game got off to a solid start for the Knights (18-12) when they scored 3 runs in their opening at-bat. Prospect got a pair of RBI doubles from second baseman Ryan Sheehan and left fielder Ryland Contreras. A base hit from designated hitter Joe Peters extended the lead to 3-0 before the home team answered courtesy of an RBI single from DH Josh Matker.
Prospect added to its advantage on Sheehan’s second RBI double in the top of third. He scored three batters later on the second of Peters' three singles.
In the meantime, Knights starting hurler Michael Foley kept Schaumburg (15-13) at bay as he fanned 5 while allowing just 3 hits in five frames of work.
His highlight was catching Matker and third baseman Jacob Miener looking with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third and repeating the feat when he caught right fielder Kile Gough looking two innings later with runners at first and second.
"My fielders were amazing. I was super-confident in them with balls put in play," Foley said.
"It was really just like a you got to beat me approach. That's when it really clicked for me. I realized that I can get past these (hitters) and start making my pitches."
His replacement on the mound, Matt Castaneda, struck out four Saxons in the final two innings yielding just one hit. The visitors completed the scoring with a three-run sixth and a two-run seventh.