Portage Park excluded from tourney
Portage Park will join Northbrook as ineligible to play in next week's Cook County American Legion baseball tournament for violating residency requirements.
County commissioner Don Torgerson said as of 12:01 a.m. today (Friday), Sam Biondo has been removed as Portage Park general manager and coach and the team will not play in the tournament. Torgerson said the team will forfeit its three County victories (Palatine, Mount Prospect and Glenview) because it used two players from outside its boundaries and another who falsified his address.
On Tuesday, Torgerson ruled Northbrook had to forfeit four league victories and was ineligible to play in the County tourney because of two players who failed to meet residency requirements.
"This week hasn't been any fun," Torgerson said. "Most of them are (following the rules) but it's the 10 percent causing us a problem right now.
"It's virtually impossible to run down every address. We do run on good faith."
This reduces the double-elimination County tourney starting Tuesday to eight teams with no need for a play-in game. Palatine, Arlington, defending champion Elk Grove and Wilmette have locked up the top four seeds and will host 4 p.m. openers against opponents to be determined.
Wednesday's second-round 4 p.m. games will be hosted by the higher seeds. Games Thursday through Saturday will be at Rec Park in Arlington Heights with the winner advancing to the state tournament in Crystal Lake.
Barrington wildly stays alive: Zion might be in big trouble if it breaks out to a big lead on visiting Barrington in today's 5:30 p.m. 10th District tournament elimination game.
On Thursday, defending champion Barrington (16-12) rallied from a 7-run deficit to beat Highland Park 10-9 in an elimination game.
Barrington coach Pat Wire said that might be the secret formula since his team rallied from an 8-run, second-inning deficit to beat Grayslake 9-8 in Monday's tourney opener.
"It was another one of those you wouldn't believe," Wire said.
Despite a 2-run homer by Brendan Schumacher on Wednesday, Barrington lost a 3-0 lead and lost 8-3 to Libertyville in the double-elimination tourney. On Thursday, it trailed 8-1 when Paul Rathman's double sparked a 7-run outburst capped by John O'Connell's 3-run homer.
Sean Buchholz came in to stop Highland Park and hits by Jim Cook and David Alameda put Barrington up 10-8 in the bottom of the sixth. Highland Park got a run in the seventh but Logan Kissack came in and left the tying run at third with a strikeout.
If Barrington wins today, it would host the Libertyville-Deerfield loser at noon Saturday. The survivor would face the Libertyville-Deerfield winner in the next game with a final game if necessary on Sunday.
"With our pitching depth," Wire said of the tough task of winning four more games to repeat as champs, "if we can hang in there and pick up the ball we'll be OK."
Tyler Tureck's clutch long relief and homers by Schumacher and Kissack fueled the Grayslake comeback. Barrington also went 2-2 in the Bloomington tournament as Wire said "we faced some good competition."
Jays earns a first: While defending state champion Palatine (25-6) has usually been one of the top County tournament seeds this is the first time in coach Jeff Ryder's nine-year tenure it's No. 1.
"The last two weeks we've done what we needed to do coming back from Moline," Ryder said. "I couldn't ask for much more from the kids playing every day in this heat and playing doubleheaders. We've been playing steady."
Ryder said his pitchers are rested and ready with solid outings lately by Zach Demmon, Jack Andersen and Jake Llanas, who hit a big 3-run homer to beat Evanston. Lefties Clint Terry and Sean Stutzman have continued to deliver atop the rotation.
Matt Johnsen has returned to play the outfield and hasn't pitched yet but Ryder said he could be available next week.
"We've played some really great games where we just go out there and get it done but we really haven't put teams away," Ryder said. "That's the only thing to be concerned about. Every game we need to put people away when we jump on them."
A 2-run double in the seventh by Tyler Gregory gave Palatine a 6-5 win and a doubleheader sweep of Elk Grove on Sunday. Palatine beat Glenview 12-5 Thursday in its final game before the County tourney.
Arlington still busy: Arlington (18-9), which has won 10 of the last 12 County titles, will get a five-game tuneup this weekend in Appleton, Wis.
Arlington coach Lloyd Meyer said his team has been playing better "to a point, but we're still making too many errors."
Meyer said Thomas Kelly has been playing better defense at shortstop to go along with versatile Ed Gerdes' strong play at second for the injured John Coen. Andrew Van Wazer and Gerdes have also been hitting better.
Meyer also said he hoped Coen might be able to pitch next week since the injury was to his non-throwing (left) hand.
Red Sox survive rough stretch: Heading into the County tourney at 4-4 was nothing spectacular for Elk Grove (17-12). But it wasn't a problem for coach Brian Mucha since all the games were in five days.
"I was happy with the stretch - and the way our pitching went," Mucha said.
The pitching in saw Tyler Ford throw only 65 pitches in a 2-0 loss to Mount Prospect ace Steve Danielak and then come back and pitch the first two innings of the second-game victory.
"I said, 'Can you give me 30 more pitches,' and he said he could," Mucha said. "It saved us two innings."
And after Andy Keehn beat Evanston 3-2 in the first game of a doubleheader, Tim Massat came in and completed the sweep by going the distance in a 4-2 win even though he had thrown only 8 innings all summer.
Julian Sipiora also threw a complete-game shutout to beat Morton Grove 5-0.
Dandy Danielak: Whoever draws Mount Prospect (9-15) won't have an easy opener against Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne recruit Steve Danielak. The righty followed his shutout of Elk Grove with a tough 2-1 loss to Wilmette.
"To Steve's credit, he and Alex Lee came to me and said Steve can go on three days rest," said Prospect coach Tom Krumsee. "He's just a workhorse. I'm impressed with his mental attitude."
Prospect lost the second game 6-1 to Wilmette and also lost 9-5 to Northbrook on Thursday.