Lake Zurich reaches Classic semis

After spending the whole day under a hot summer sun, first coaching football and then baseball, Gary Simon removed his customary wraparound shades and revealed tired eyes.

His Lake Zurich baseball players were exhausted, too. But the Bears were sporting smiles after their 8-4 win over second-seeded Grayslake Central in the last of four regional quarterfinal games in the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association's Phil Lawler Summer Classic played at Libertyville on Tuesday.

"A lot of these guys are football players," Simon said.

That's a good thing.

Lake Zurich's football program has developed into a perennial state power over the last several years, and its baseball program has also been a consistent winner under Simon, a football assistant whose baseball team advanced to the state finals three summers ago.

Lake Zurich, the No. 10 seed in a regional that was seeded by virtue of teams' number of wins last year, advanced to today's 4:30 p.m. semifinal against No. 6 Lakes, a 7-2 winner over Carmel.

Today's 2 p.m. semifinal at Libertyville features top-seeded Stevenson, which edged Crystal Lake South 5-4 on a walk-off walk, against No. 4 Cary-Grove, which was a 4-3 winner over Mundelein thanks to 2 runs in the bottom of the seventh. The winners play for the regional championship at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Lake Zurich will be seeking its sixth win in a row.

"We're playing good ball," Simon said. "It's like I've been telling the guys, 'It's not how you start; it's how you finish.' "

Lake Zurich used three pitchers to 3-hit Grayslake Central. Mike Irgang started for the Bears and tossed 3 innings. Grayslake Central led 3-2 after one inning and was up 4-3 after two, before Lake Zurich pushed across 4 runs in the top of the third.

Irgang helped his own cause with a 2-run double in the inning.

Brian Moncrief relieved Irgang and worked out of a second-and-third, jam with nobody out in the fourth.

Bears third baseman Jake LaRue helped out Moncrief by snagging a couple of hard-hit groundballs, and LaRue successfully fielded another grounder in the fifth.

"He's got great hands," Simon said of the incoming junior. "Two of those (groundballs) were bullets."

Moncrief ran into trouble again in the sixth, hitting a batter and issuing a walk before Simon called on hard-throwing Mike Lutz, who pitched on varsity as a sophomore in the spring. Lutz sandwiched 2 strikeouts around a walk, as the Rams left the bases loaded, failing to chop into their 7-4 deficit.

Lutz fanned two more in the seventh to end it.

"Moncrief was the key," Simon said. "He doesn't throw hard, but he kept the ball down."

Parker Asmann led Lake Zurich's 12-hit attack by going 3-for-4 with a double, 2 runs and an RBI. The Bears got 2 hits apiece from Irgang (3 RBI), LaRue (RBI) and Mike Schnurr (2 runs). Mark Dorfman had an RBI double.

"We have a lot of good players," Simon said.