Barrington finally finds win column
Barrington’s baseball team was going through a brutal stretch to start the season.
Loss after loss piled up through 12 games. Almost all of them were close but none of them went the Broncos’ way.
Until Wednesday afternoon following a week off because of inclement weather. The Broncos overcame a pair of 3-run deficits and then held off a pair of late threats in a 6-5 Mid-Suburban West victory over visiting Conant.
“We’ve been playing some good baseball lately against some good teams and we’ve been just coming up short,” said Barrington coach Jim Hawrysko, who said he had never been through a losing streak this long in his coaching career. “I’m proud of the guys for going to work every day and continuing to fight.
“Some good things went our way today and we’re happy to come out with the victory.”
Senior Taylor Ward pitched 5-plus innings for his first varsity victory and Greg Gerrard finished for the save. Conant (1-7, 0-2) took leads of 3-0 in the third and 5-2 in the fifth but only 1 run off Ward was earned.
“He did a great job of getting all of his pitches over,” Hawrysko said. “He’s showed some great improvement over his last four starts and he’s gotten better every time out. And the hitters are getting better every time out.”
Indiana-bound Ricky Alfonso had a pair of big two-out hits and drove in 3 runs as Barrington (1-12, 1-1) went ahead to stay with a 4-run fifth. A couple of bunts — one by Max Redpath with two strikes for a sacrifice and the other by Kyle Fitzpatrick for a hit — aided the offense.
Ward gave up a double to start the sixth but Gerrard came in and got a strikeout, groundout and popup to leave a runner at third. Another Gerrard strikeout left the tying run at third to end the game.
“They’ve really stayed positive and stayed focused and it was a matter of expecting to win and not expecting something to go bad,” Hawrysko said. “I think we have confidence and we’re playing better. We have some things going our way and we’re getting the people we’re counting on to come through for us.”
Prospect 7, Rolling Meadows 0: Jack Landwehr (4-1) fired a 3-hitter and was one of three players with 3 hits for Prospect (10-2, 2-0) in the MSL East victory.
Landwehr had 13 strikeouts and no walks, homered, doubled and drove in 2 runs as the Knights took control with a 6-run third. Steve Dazzo also had 3 hits, a homer and 2 RBI, Brian Bauer had 3 hits, a double and 2 RBI and Luke Bergman had 2 hits and a double.
Matt Dennis was 2-for-2 and was the only starter for Rolling Meadows (6-4, 0-2) who didn’t strike out.
Prospect will host its field dedication ceremony for retired head coach Larry Pohlman at approximately 4 p.m. today — 30 minutes before the start of its game with Hersey.
Hersey 3, Wheeling 0: Mike Danielak (2-1) threw a 3-hit shutout and Sean Thompson’s first-inning RBI single was all host Hersey (7-4, 2-0) needed in the MSL East victory.
Danielak had 10 strikeouts and 1 walk and threw 69 of his 99 pitches for strikes. Hersey also got RBI singles from Joe Perricone in the third and Trevor Haas (2-for-3) in the fourth in its third straight win.
Josh Matthys went 2-for-3 for Wheeling (3-6). He took the loss despite allowing only 2 earned runs in 5 innings.
Postponements: Buffalo Grove at Elk Grove, Fremd at Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates at Palatine were postponed to May 5. Maine West at Evanston was postponed to May 2.