Stevenson doesn’t come up short
As Stevenson’s baseball team took infield practice before its game at Mundelein on Saturday morning, Patriots coach Paul Mazzuca, holding a bat in one hand and a ball in the other, paused near home plate.
His favorite player, a middle infielder, was about to depart for another game.
“See you later!” Mazzuca shouted to another Mazzuca. His young son, Dominic, wearing a No. 2 Giants jersey and standing near his mother, waved to his favorite coach and then sprinted toward the family vehicle.
Patriots would have to battle Mustangs without Dandy Dom; a Coach-Pitch team needed the tyke.
“He chose that jersey number because he knows I like Derek Jeter (No. 2 for New York’s Yankees),” coach Mazzuca said two hours later, after his squad — which trailed 2-0 after three innings — defeated Mundelein 6-2 in a pivotal North Suburban Lake Division game. “As our players worked on their hitting, earlier this morning at our school, so did he. He also sat with our players on our bus ride over here.
“Sure wish,” he added, “I could have been in two places at the same time today.”
Paul and Dominic sure must like Pats junior shortstop Adam Walton. And not just because Walton ripped a 2-run infield single off the right foot of Mundelein ace Ben Mahar in the Pats’ 4-run fourth inning.
Walton’s number on the back of his jersey: 2.
Valparaiso-bound Mahar (7-1) hadn’t allowed a hit until Stevenson senior right fielder Ricky Kern led off the fourth with a sharp single to right.
“Just looking for something to hit hard,” Walton said of his tiebreaking comebacker, which ricocheted off Mahar’s wheel and scooted toward deep short. “Those first couple of innings, (Mahar’s) fastball was overpowering. He had all of us on our heels.”
Isaac Greenspon’s curveball, meanwhile, had enough bite to be a bored orthopedic surgeon’s best friend. Stevenson’s filthy-good senior righty (4-0) buckled more than a few of the Mustangs’ knees on a chilly, gray day.
“My favorite pitch,” he said after allowing only 3 hits in six innings and fanning five while walking five, as Stevenson improved to 19-2, 7-0 before a sizable crowd. “At the beginning, I was really anxious. I couldn’t wait to get out here and play Mundelein, a really good team.”
Mundelein (20-3, 6-3) lost its third straight Lake Division game after winning its first 20 games this spring. Mustangs junior right fielder Tor Randau, whose walk-up song before home at-bats is “Check My Brain,” concussed a Greenspon pitch for a 2-run homer over the center-field wall in the second inning.
“I got down on myself after the homer, and then I got up again,” recalled Greenspon. “I couldn’t wait to get back on the mound after that inning.”
The hosts would manage only one more hit, a Billy McMahon single in the sixth inning, off Greenspon and Blake Fiedelman (1 IP, 0 hits, 2 Ks).
Mahar fired a 91-mph pitch to strike out the second batter he faced. He finished with 7 Ks and 6 walks in 4 innings. The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder yielded 5 hits and 3 earned runs in his first loss of 2011.
Mundelein committed 3 errors.
“Our defense … unacceptable,” said Mundelein coach Todd Parola, as he conducted a stern postgame practice on the varsity field. “Stevenson came here looking for a battle. Unfortunately, we didn’t provide one. We, for whatever reason, felt sorry for ourselves (after Stevenson’s 4-run frame) and didn’t fight.
“I didn’t do a very good job of getting us ready to play. We took a major step backward today.”
Stevenson senior left fielder Brandon Waters went 3-for-4, knocking in a pair of runs and striking the Pats’ only extra-base hit (triple). Leadoff hitter Michael Martin walked twice and drove in a run on a groundout for the victors, and junior teammate Anthony D’Angelo squeezed home a run in the top of the fifth.
Mundelein junior lefty Ryan Borucki (0 runs, 2 hits, 6 Ks, 1 BB) looked impressive in 2 innings of relief.