Baseball: Postma’s no-hitter seals MSL title for Barrington against Prospect
With the stakes even higher, Barrington’s Jack Postma elevated his game to a new level Thursday.
Postma 2-hit Prospect eight days ago to help the Broncos win the Mid-Suburban League West Division. On Thursday in Barrington, Postma fired the first no-hitter in MSL championship game history to lead Barrington to a 5-1 win over the Knights.
“It’s a surreal feeling,” said Postma, a sophomore right-hander. “I had full confidence out there again today. My defense was behind me, my catcher (Ryan Costello) was catching an absolute gem and coach was calling excellent pitches.”
It was the first MSL title for Barrington since 2019. It was also just the second MSL championship for coach Paul Belo, who came out of retirement to coach the Broncos this season. Belo had won a MSL title and lost another when he was at Fremd and lost three championship games during his tenure at Palatine.
“It is nice for me,” Belo said. “But it is really all about our kids. They had to embrace what we are doing here. And it couldn’t have been done without them. And our coaches as well. They have done an unbelievable job as well.”
Postma was dominating, throwing just 74 pitches. He struck out six while walking two and hit two batters. Prospect’s only run came on a throwing error in the sixth inning.
“I went 14 innings and didn’t give up an earned run against them,” Postma said. “That’s a cool stat. I was efficient out there today.”
Belo loved how the 6-foot-4 Postma threw.
“He comes out and he understands the conditions,” Belo said. “I think the elevated fastball was critical because they were offering at it. He also mixed in the slider and the change-up. He was effective that way.”
The two teams met in the final week of the MSL regular season with the visiting team winning each contest. Prospect knocked off host Barrington 9-5. Barrington turned the tables on Prospect 5-0 thanks to another strong outing by Postma to win the reformulated MSL West.
Barrington then beat Rolling Meadows 2-0 on Monday and Prospect blew past Schaumburg 10-1 in Tuesday to advance to Thursday’s title game.
Barrington (22-12) moved quickly to ensure that the home team would be on top Thursday thanks to some Belo ball.
Max Wrzeszcz led off with a walk for the Broncos. He went to second on a bunt by Zach Ostergaard. Wrzeszcz moved to third on Jackson Roberts’ flyout to right. Wrzeszcz then trotted home on Andrew Whitney’s single to right.
“The biggest thing I am proud of is what we’re trying to do offensively,” Belo said, “and I think that showed up in today’s game.”
Barrington broke the game open in its very next at-bat.
Again, the Broncos used some small ball to get things rolling. Bowie Heintz led off with a single. Quinn Blue then followed with a single to right to put runners on the corners.
Ryan Costello dropped a perfect squeeze bunt. Not only did Heintz score, but Costello made it safely to first to make the score 2-0. Wrzeszcz reached on an infield error to score Costello. Ostergaard followed with an RBI double and then scored on Roberts’ sacrifice fly to make it 5-0.
“I feel like that’s part of our plan,” said Ostergaard, a senior. “We set it up with some small ball and then get the long ball after. I was just sitting fastball, because he was not throwing many curveballs.”
Prospect (18-13) broke up the shutout late in the game. Aiden Nelson, who walked, and Matthew Donnelly, who was hit by a pitch, executed a double steal. Nelson scored on a throwing error.
“The environment was great,” Prospect coach Chris Hoffman said. “It just didn’t go our way today. We spotted them a couple of runs. Postma has a very good arm. And we hit some hard balls right at them. Sometimes that’s the way it goes.”