Northwest roundup/Becker, Palatine have a blast
Kurt Becker jump-started Palatine’s offense and finally stopped Barrington’s in a wild Mid-Suburban West baseball game Monday.
Becker hit 2 homers in a 10-run fifth inning and then came in to pitch with one out in the seventh and left the bases loaded as Palatine (17-11, 7-3) won its sixth straight game 14-12 at Kirby Smith Field.
Palatine trailed 5-1 when Becker started the fifth with a homer. Vince Portera hit a grand slam for a 7-5 lead, Becker hit a 2-run homer and Dan Haze hit a 2-run blast for the fourth homer of the inning.
The Pirates, who trail Fremd by a half-game in the MSL West, built a 14-5 lead as Alex Miramontes (5-2) got the win in relief. Cody Bobbit went 3-for-5, Jim Smearman was 2-for-2 with 2 RBI and Haze and Jesse Bobbit had 3 hits.
But Barrington (4-22, 3-8) rallied with 7 runs in the final two innings. Macray Poidomani went 4-for-5, Jake Broughton was 3-for-5 with 3 RBI, Doug Beath was 3-for-3 with 2 RBI and John O’Connell homered.
Becker came in with the bases loaded and a 14-11 lead and got a strikeout. He hit a batter to force in a run but finished it with another strikeout.
Fremd 3, Conant 2: Joe Leaf threw a 5-hitter for his second straight complete-game victory for MSL West leader Fremd (13-10, 8-3). Leaf had 7 strikeouts and 2 walks and threw 68 of his 102 pitches for strikes.
Fremd got RBI doubles from Kurt Kaufman and Connor McWard and an RBI single by Josh Jyawook. Kaufman, K.J. Kinsella and Sean Stutzman had 2 hits apiece.
Zach Losch was 2-for-3 and Nick Fillmore had an RBI triple for Conant (4-15, 3-8).
Prospect 13, Wheeling 3 (5 inn.): Prospect (18-5, 9-2) put up its season-high for runs — in the first inning when it scored 12 times in the MSL East win.
Jack Landwehr had a 3-run double and went 3-for-3 with 4 RBI and Matt Molini was 2-for-3 for the Knights, who had scored 11 runs twice this season.
Ben Menich pitched an inning for the victory.
Ten of the runs came with two outs as Prospect opened a 2½-game lead on Elk Grove (13-9, 6-4). Wheeling (5-13, 2-8) lost its sixth straight.
Hersey 6, Elk Grove 5: Winner Mike Danielak had 9 strikeouts in 6 innings and Joe Perricone had a pair of RBI doubles as Hersey (13-11, 6-5) held on in the MSL East.
Perricone’s second RBI double put Hersey up 6-3 in the sixth. Elk Grove got within 6-5 on a 2-run single in the sixth by Jack Czeszewski (3-for-3).
The Grenadiers threatened in the seventh with one-out singles by Ryan Daubenspeck and Michael Anciulis but Aaron DeGeorge got the final two outs for the save.
Hersey took a 5-3 lead with a 3-run fourth as Tyler Perkowitz and Sean Thompson had RBI singles and DeGeorge drove in a run on a groundout.
Perkowitz, Perricone, Thompson, Danielak and Trevor Haas had 2 hits for Hersey.
BG 7, Meadows 6: Kevin Tennenbaum hit a tiebreaking 3-run homer on an 0-1 pitch in the bottom of the fifth inning as Buffalo Grove (10-12, 5-5) held on in the MSL East.
Tommy Ricciardi tied the game at 4-4 in the fifth on an RBI double. Ryan Nisbet, Jake Monson and Trevor Myers had RBI singles as Kevin Dembinski got the victory and Jesus Sanchez went the last two innings for the save.
Eric Lowe homered and Joe Kropp had 2 doubles for Meadows (12-10, 6-6).
Schaumburg 9, Hoffman 2: Matt Brancato (4-2) pitched 6 strong innings and Roger Lane had a tiebreaking 2-run triple in the fourth for Schaumburg (11-6, 4-5) in the MSL West.
Brancato allowed only 5 hits and 1 earned run and had 6 strikeouts and 3 walks. Lane and Tom Byrne had 2 hits.
Hoffman fell to 12-14 overall and 5-7 in the MSL West.
St. Viator 7, Marist 1: Robert Romano threw a complete-game 4-hitter as East Suburban Catholic Conference leader St. Viator (15-9, 9-2) remained a game ahead of Nazareth (22-4, 8-3), which beat Marian Catholic 6-2.
Romano had 5 strikeouts and 3 walks and Cory Kay was 2-for-3 with 2 RBI as the Lions won for the eighth time in nine games.
Hinsdale South 4, Leyden 3: The Eagles (22-2, 15-2) had their 9-game winning streak snapped in the West Suburban Gold loss. Both of their losses are by 1 run.