Baseball: Libertyville completes late season charge to win NSC crown on final day

It took a late season surge to do it, but the Libertyville baseball team captured their sixth straight North Suburban Conference championship Tuesday afternoon with a 5-2 victory over visiting Warren.

The Blue Devils (19-9, 9-5) scored a run off winning pitcher Nico Harper in the top of the first. But defending state champion Libertyville (24-9-1, 11-3) responded with 4 runs in the bottom of the first before holding Warren at bay the rest of the game.

Lake Forest (24-7, 10-4) had the inside track to winning the NSC title outright. But Mundelein (19-9, 10-4) beat the Scouts on both Monday and Tuesday to help their archrival Wildcats capture the crown outright.

Warren's Jameson O'Neill walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Conner Nissen, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Braxton Goodfellow for a quick 1-0 lead.

But Libertyville got RBI from Braden Tolzien, Jack Cenar, Mathew Hara, and Chase Lockwood off Warren starter Braylan McCarthy (2-for-3) to take a 4-1 lead.

"It was nice to be able to answer back, and to put up the 4-spot was huge," said Libertyville coach Matt Thompson, whose team outhit Warren 5-3. "We're playing good, solid defense and Nico (Harper) has gotten better every time he's out there so we're excited for him."

The Wildcats added an insurance run in the bottom of the fourth as Warren reliever Mason Palmer entered the game with runners on first and second and one out. A balk moved the runners up a base before Bode Rohrbach (1-for-3) scored on a wild pitch for a 5-1 lead.

The Blue Devils got a run in the top of the sixth as Nissen walked and scored on a bases-loaded walk by Libertyville reliever Aksel McKnight, who struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam.

"My coaches believe in me and I've built on every start I've had throughout the season," said Harper, who pitched 5 1/3 innings. "My defense, especially up the middle, has been good all year, and they do their job every time."

Warren coach Clint Smothers is still optimistic heading into the late stages of the season.

"When you play the caliber of teams like Libertyville you can't have a bad inning, but our kids are still fighting," Smothers said. "These kids have had a great year, they're overachieving, and if we can fix a few things we can compete with anybody."