Passaro, Conant have a blast at Prospect
Conant and Mike Passaro finally had a blast in Monday’s Mid-Suburban League baseball crossover at Prospect.
Passaro was the winning pitcher and hit 2 homers and drove in 5 runs — including a 2-run blast in the top of the eighth inning for a 6-4 victory at Larry Pohlman Field.
Prospect (11-4, 3-1) nearly scored the winning run in the seventh and threatened in the eighth but Conant (2-9, 1-3) held on to end a seven-game losing streak.
“Can we just close the door?” Conant coach Jerry Song said with a laugh of the scary finish. “We’ve tried to stay positive and it ended up being a nice way to win.
“Passaro was getting ahead of the hitters and we played a pretty clean game. There have always been one or two innings where we start making some errors and give the game away.”
Passaro hadn’t driven in a run all year but hit a 3-run homer in the second and his game-winner with one out in the eighth.
“He was struggling and the lineup has been changing left and right,” Song said. “But he felt really good and he’s been working a lot on his hitting.”
Prospect tied it in the seventh on Jack Landwehr’s RBI double. But on Brian Bauer’s one-out single to right, Conor Donohue made a perfect throw to the plate to cut down pinch runner Ben Menich.
Art Sutter got the save as he gave up a pair of two-out walks in the eighth but finished it with a strikeout.
Wheeling 2, Hoffman 1: Wheeling (4-7, 1-3) had only one baserunner and no hits until the sixth inning but pulled out the MSL crossover.
Hoffman Estates (5-10, 0-3) junior Mark Roberts had 7 strikeouts and saw his no-hitter broken up in the sixth on David Shapiro’s leadoff double off the right-field fence. Ricky Schwind sacrificed pinch-runner Joey Zimmerman to third and with two outs Nick Ricciardi lined a tiebreaking single to center.
Wheeling got its first run in the first inning when Theo Yfantis walked, stole 2 bases and scored on Josh Matthys’ groundout. A pair of double plays by shortstop Kalvin Thong, second baseman Anthony Spiezia and first baseman Peter Durbin ended jams in the fourth and sixth.
Wheeling starter Tyler Shapiro had runners at second and third with no outs in the sixth when he knocked down a liner with his pitching hand. Shapiro got the out at first but had to leave the game and was replaced by Matthys.
Matthys gave up a walk but the second double play ended the threat. Durbin also made a nice tag play to end the game.
Kevin Tednes went 2-for-3 for Hoffman.
Buffalo Grove 11, Palatine 10: Buffalo Grove (8-6, 3-0) was three outs from winning by the 10-run rule and then had to leave the bases loaded in the seventh to hold on for the MSL crossover win over visiting Palatine (10-8, 2-1).
BG led 11-1 after four innings as Jimmy Pinakidis went 3-for-3 and Tommy Ricciardi (3 RBI), Ryan Nisbet (2 RBI) and Richie Zirngibl had 2 hits apiece. Kevin Dembinski (3-1) allowed 3 earned runs in 5 innings for the victory.
Palatine rallied as Dan Haze doubled and homered, Jim Smearman homered and Kurt Becker drove in 3 runs. Haze, Smearman, Jesse Bobbit and Vince Portera had 2 hits each.
Palatine scored 2 runs in the seventh but Andrew Van Wazer got the save as he struck out Smearman and got Bobbit to pop out to leave the bases loaded.
Fremd 4, Meadows 2: Senior lefty Sean Stutzman (5-2) threw a 6-hitter with 9 strikeouts and Josh Jyawook had 3 of the 7 doubles by Fremd (7-7, 3-0) in the MSL crossover. Kurt Kaufman also had 2 doubles and 3 RBI, Stutzman had a double and an RBI and K.J. Kinsella doubled.
Kevin Cwynar had a 2-run double in the fourth and Matt Hendricks was 2-for-3 as Rolling Meadows (6-7, 0-4) lost its fifth straight.
Hersey 6, Barrington 1: Mike Danielak (3-1) threw a 3-hitter and Dalton Farel and Sean Thompson had 2 hits apiece for Hersey (8-6, 2-2) in the MSL crossover.
Danielak threw 57 of his 79 pitches for strikes and had 6 strikeouts and 1 walk. Tyler Perkowitz tripled and had 2 RBI.
Max Redpath drove in the Barrington (2-15, 1-3) run.
St. Viator 3, Notre Dame 1: Robert Romano (2-2) threw a 3-hitter and Kevin Patzke’s 2 homers accounted for all the offense for St. Viator (8-8, 2-1) in the East Suburban Catholic Conference win.
Romano had 9 strikeouts and 2 walks and gave up his only run in the fifth. Patzke hit a solo homer in the third and a 2-run shot in the fourth and Cosimo Cannella went 2-for-2 with a double.
Leyden 7, Proviso East 1: Sandro Irizarry (3-0) went 5 innings for the victory and Eric Palmer doubled and drove in 3 runs for Leyden (14-1, 8-1) in the West Suburban Gold.