Red-hot Mundelein just wants to keep playing

In most circles, eight straight days off sounds like a dream.

For a baseball team like Mundelein, it’s a nightmare.

The Mustangs are currently the hottest team in Lake County. They’ve started the season 15-0, their best start in nearly two decades.

Head coach Todd Parola has been at the helm 17 years, and he can’t remember having ever coached a team that won its first 15 games, including his 2000 team that finished the season 32-3.

He says the last thing a team that is clicking so well needs is an extensive layoff. But that’s exactly what Mundelein, along with every other team in Lake County, has gotten in the last week.

Mother Nature has been difficult, washing out game after game with relentless downpours. She made the red-hot Mustangs cool their heels for eight straight days.

“It’s definitely been very frustrating,” Parola said. “We were playing as well as we could play about two weeks ago, then we have eight days off.

“That kind of layoff affects every aspect of your game, especially hitting. Hitting is something you have to do every day, against live pitching. It’s hard to simulate game conditions in the cages. We try our best in practice, but we really need to be out there playing games.”

Busy, busy: Practice. Who needs it?

Well, the fact of the matter is, even if Grayslake Central does need practice, it’s not in the cards anymore.

The Rams have missed so many games because of the weather this season that as of Friday, they have just one more practice day for the rest of the season. That’s right, the entire rest of the season.

Every weekday and every Saturday in May is now filled will a game, a makeup or one that was originally scheduled.

“It’s like playing a Major League schedule without the Major League (money),” Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said with a laugh. “It’s incredible, but, you know what? The kids love it. They’re looking forward to playing every day. They love the games.”

Whalen says there’s another positive to the busy schedule of games.

Pitching staffs will need to be expanded to account for the pace, and that means that more players will get opportunities to get meaningful varsity innings.

“A lot more pitchers, even junior varsity pitchers, will be put into action,” Whalen said. “We’ve pretty much been a four-person rotation so far this season, but we have about nine guys we feel good about and we’re going to have to use them all in May when we’re playing every day.

“I think that’s a great thing. Those guys put in the same time and effort that the top four guys do and Mother Nature is giving them a great opportunity to show what they can do.”

Moving up: A month into the season, Grayslake Central pitcher Austin Leggett already has a pretty good gig lined up for next year.

He’s got an offer to be a preferred walk-on at Northern Illinois.

But if Leggett keeps pitching the way he has, that gig might be long forgotten, or in the very least sweetened, by the end of May.

“If he keeps up this rate, he’s going to get a lot of other offers,” Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said. “Austin is pitching so well right now. We had one of our best games of the season on Monday against Cary-Grove and Austin pitched one heck of a game. He’s keeps getting better and better.”

In the Rams’ 5-2 win over Cary-Grove, Leggett rolled up 10 strikeouts to get his fourth win of the season. His earned run average sits at an impressive 1.80.

“Austin has made a big jump from his junior year to his senior year,” Whalen said. “Last year as a junior, he was just hoping to make plays, he was hoping to locate his pitches. This year, as a senior, he expects to make plays, he expects to locate his pitches.

“He’s just got so much more confidence this year. He’s matured a lot and he’s playing more relaxed.”

Good and bad: Weather-wise, it’s been a rough spring on baseball teams everywhere in Lake County.

But at Wauconda, the complaining is being kept to a minimum.

After all, the Bulldogs have been enjoying the start of the season, despite all the rainouts and frigid temperatures.

When they have played games, the Bulldogs have often won them. Their 10-5 start, including wins over solid programs such as Lake Zurich and Deerfield, is one of their best starts in the last decade.

“It ranks right up there, that’s for sure,” Wauconda coach Bill Sliker said. “This is one of the worst springs I’ve been involved with in terms of the rain and cold, but we’ve been able to play pretty well.

“So the weather really hasn’t gotten us down. We’ve been able to stay even keel.”

Senior step-ups: Experience is always a good thing in sports, particularly on a pitching staff.

Wauconda coach Bill Sliker believes that one of the main reasons his team has gotten off to its 10-5 start is that his three best pitchers are all experienced seniors.

Jeremy Wagner, Erik Maki and Tim Matesi have all been around the block a few times.

“They’ve been through the ups and downs of a season before,” Sliker said. “They’ve experienced adversity and know how to handle it. The leadership they’ve given us to help us stay on track has really carried us through so far this season.

“And with their pitching, those guys have all come up big for us.”

In Wauconda’s most recent games, Wagner got a big win over Deerfield and Maki was able to defeat Lake Division foe Lake Zurich.

”Whenever we can get a win over a Lake Division team, that’s a big win for us,” Sliker said.

Tough-luck Lutz: On paper, Lake Zurich pitcher Mike Lutz is impressive.

In his three games on the mound, he ranks second on the team in strikeouts with 25. In his latest game, a start against Wauconda, he recorded 10 strikeouts and allowed just 2 walks.

But like every other start that Lutz has had this season, the Wauconda start ended in a loss. Lutz is 0-3 on the season.

“He’s been a hard-luck pitcher so far this season and I feel for Mike,” Lake Zurich coach Gary Simon said. “He gave up only two earned runs against Wauconda but we lost 7-2. We made 2 errors, plus we just weren’t hitting the ball.

“Hitting has been a problem for us all season.”

Lutz and some of Lake Zurich’s other pitchers haven’t always gotten the offensive support needed to help cement wins. The Bears’ team batting average this season hovers around .300.

“Usually, our team batting average is about .380 or .390, so this is really low,” Simon said. “We’re just not hitting the ball enough, we’re not scoring enough runs. We’ve been shut out three times already this season and in each of the last five years, we got shut out just once.

“We’ve got to get ourselves going at the plate and support our pitchers.”

In the meantime, Simon is trying to keep pitchers like Lutz from losing confidence as the losses pile up.

“We just try to tell him and our other pitchers to hang in there and keep throwing the way you have been,” Simon said. “We’ll get our hitting and run production going as fast as we can for you.”

Tough guy: Lake Zurich pitcher Mike Schnur missed his most recent start.

But he had good reason. He was shaken from being involved in a car accident the day before.

As he was traveling in town last week, he was rear-ended by a car traveling at about 45 miles per hour.

“I guess the other guy dropped his cell phone and plowed right into Mike,” Lake Zurich coach Gary Simon said. “Mike was really lucky to be OK.”

Schnur was sore, but he was more than OK.

The accident happened on a Friday and by the next day, Schnur was playing in Lake Zurich’s game against St. Charles North. Schnur was supposed to get the start, but he played first base as a precaution because his back and neck were still a bit sore.

“We were really happy to see that he was able to play,” Simon said. “The only good thing about all the rainouts we’ve had lately is that it’s giving Mike even more time to heal up.”