Baseball: MSL East race to be decided Monday

The Mid-Suburban East baseball championship is going down to the final day.

Buffalo Grove rolled past Conant 13-2 in 5 innings on Friday, while Prospect fell at Palatine 7-6 in a game with wild late scoring swings.

Those outcomes leave Buffalo Grove and Prospect tied for the East Division lead with 12-3 records and one league game remaining Monday. Buffalo Grove will host Fremd, and Prospect will host Schaumburg.

Prospect and Buffalo Grove split their two recent head-to-head meetings.

Prospect has the next tiebreaker - won-loss record against East Division foes - in its favor. Prospect is 9-1 against the East, and Buffalo Grove is 8-2.

So the only way Buffalo Grove could represent the East in the MSL title game would be with a Bison win and a Knights loss on Monday.

The East representative will face West champion Barrington in the MSL championship game next Friday.

Palatine 7, Prospect 6: The Knights' bats were quiet until the sixth inning, when they rallied for 6 runs and a 6-4 lead.

But the host Pirates answered with 3 more runs of their own in the bottom half and then made the slim lead hold up in the seventh.

In Prospect's big inning, Richie Baczek had an RBI double, Grant Whitebloom drove in 2 runs with an RBI single, Anthony Catalano had a 2-run single and the Knights scored 1 run via a bases-load walk.

In Palatine half of the sixth, Jake Andersen had an RBI double, and Josh Stitt drove in Brent Penrose and Andersen with another double for the tying and go-ahead runs.

Thomas Soby got the win in relief after relieving in the sixth inning and coming up with a 1-2-3 seventh for the Pirates (17-13, 9-6), who are tied with Fremd for second place in the MSL West.

T.J. Skelnik, Palatine's starter, finished 3-for-3 and Jack Grochowski had 2 hits for Palatine.

Grant Zellmer drew a pair of walks for Prospect (16-10), which dropped its second straight.

Buffalo Grove 13, Conant 2: The visiting Bison produced 16 hits, including six doubles, in rolling past the Cougars.

Chase Marsh had 2 doubles, Mac Camardo drove in 3 runs and Riley Rundquist doubled and finished 2-for-3 with 2 RBI. Among the other leading hitters for the Bison (23-3-1) were John Carpinelli (3-for-3, walk), Zach Fricke (2-for-3, double, 2 RBI) and Mike Gran (2-for-3). Leo Rule stole a pair of bases and the Bison finished with a total of six thefts.

Winner Jack Vaselaney tossed the first 4 innings, allowing only 3 hits and an unearned run.

Logan Smith had a pair of hits and drove in a run for Conant (10-18, 5-10), and Pat Burchfield had a triple.

Hoffman Estates 10, Hersey 9: Dylan Bloom's solo homer on a line drive to left field in the bottom of the seventh inning lifted the host Hawks to an MSL victory and assured them of at least a .500 finish in the MSL in coach Chuck Abbott's first season.

Lucas Barnes also had a 3-run homer in the fifth inning for Hoffman Estates (9-14, 8-7), and Kyle Krogstad hit a solo shot to lead off the second inning.

Jim Kliver finished 3-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI for the Hawks, and Josh Magers and Dylan Bloom both had 2 hits.

Hersey (8-17-1, 4-11) trailed much of the game managed to tie it up with 4 runs in the top of the seventh inning. The big blow was a 3-run homer from Tyler Haffey, who finished 3 for 5 with 6 RBI. Christian Rodriguez came up with a two-out double to score the tying run.

Nick Wiley (double) and James Denten both had 2 hits for the Huskies.

Schaumburg 3, Rolling Meadows 0: Kolby Miller was the key for Schaumburg. The junior pitched a complete-game 4-hitter, striking out three and walking none, and also finished 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored and an RBI as the host Saxons won in the MSL.

Fred Yuen also had 2 hits for Schaumburg (7-19, 2-13), and Ruan Sakamoto drove in 2 runs.

Matt Lothery and Marco Perez had 2 hits apiece for Rolling Meadows (4-20, 2-13).

Barrington 13, Wheeling 1 (5 inn.): The Broncos plated 6 runs in the second inning and powered to an abbreviated win over the visiting Wildcats in MSL play.

The Broncos finished with 5 hits but took full advantage of 6 walks and 5 hit-by-pitches.

Ryan Loutos pitched 4 innings for Barrington (24-7, 14-1) and allowed 4 hits with 6 strikeouts. The Broncos' Will Yorton finished 2-for-3 and drove in 2 runs.

Fremd 10, Elk Grove 0 (6 inn.): The Vikings got strong pitching from Mitchell Schroll and Ian Wojcik and plenty of offense in earning an MSL win at home.

Schroll started and allowed 3 hits with 1 strikeout and 2 walks over 5 innings. Wojcik faced the minimum and in hitless sixth inning.

Mark Bechtold, Tommy Wingen, Nate Hill and Zach Goodman each doubled for Fremd (15-13, 9-6). Other big contributors were Tommy Josten (3-for-4) and Luke Seidel (2 RBI); Bechtold drove in 2 runs and Goodman had 2 hits.

Elk Grove (12-15, 7-8) was limited to 3 singles.

Leyden 5, Addison Trail 0: Justin Borges tossed a complete-game 2-hitter with 8 strikeouts and no walks as the host Eagles topped another West Suburban Gold opponent.

Borges and Matt Ozanic both finished 2-for-3 at the plate. Borges drove in 2 runs, Ozanic had a double and Brian Szopinski scored twice for Leyden (17-4).