Wild, wild win for Schurr, Libertyville

All right, A.J. Schurr will bat right.

He's listening to his Libertyville baseball coach, Jim Schurr. And, yes, father knows best.

Schurr's switch-hitting experiment has come to an end - at least for now - as he's gone back to hitting from the right side exclusively.

"I've been switch-hitting most of the year and my dad told me to go back to batting righty, which is my dominant side," Schurr said. "It seems like I'm seeing the ball well the past few days."

After stroking 2 hits against Mundelein on Tuesday, Schurr went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI on Wednesday afternoon to help lead the host Wildcats to a wild, 20-10 win over Mundelein in North Suburban Lake Division action.

"We've been experimenting with the righty-lefty thing all year," Jim Schurr said. "I told him about three days ago to just go back to hitting righty, and I think it helped him a lot with his focus."

Schurr, Brad Martin, Nathan Clark and Joey Eichmann combined for 12 hits and 15 RBI to lead the Wildcats' 17-hit attack.

Mike O'Donoghue had a double, single and 3 RBI for the Mustangs, while Luis Carrasco also had 2 hits, including a triple.

Mundelein (17-7, 4-6) scored 3 runs in the top of the first inning, but Libertyville (15-9, 7-3) came roaring back in the bottom of the inning by sending 13 batters to the plate and scoring 9 runs on 8 hits.

Martin hit a 2-run single and Clark slammed a 2-run triple down the left-field line to highlight the inning.

Mundelein added 4 runs in the third and one in the fourth, but the Wildcats broke the game open as they batted around again in the last half of the inning, scoring six times.

In the fifth, Mundelein rallied for 4 runs to prolong the game. But with a runner on second, Wildcats pitcher Mark Boyle escaped further damage by retiring the next two batters.

"After we spotted them 3 runs (in the first inning), I was kind of worried there," Jim Schurr said. "We've been swinging the bats real well and I felt confident we would score 3 runs, but I didn't think we would score 9 runs."

Libertyville starting pitcher Davis Oglivie pitched the first 22/3 innings to record his first victory of the season.

"We didn't throw strikes or make the routine plays, Mundelein assistant coach Clay Kovac said. "That was basically was the story of the game. We were expecting to come out and swing the bats, which we did, but pitching was the story of the game so we have to learn from that."