Prairie Ridge capitalizes on Fremd mistakes

A week ago Prairie Ridge coach Glen Pecoraro didn't even know that the Heritage Park turf baseball fields in Wheeling existed. And after beating Fremd 13-4 Thursday for his team's second victory in as many days on the new fields, Pecoraro is happy with his discovery.

"It is a great place to play," said Pecoraro, whose team beat Palatine at Heritage Park on Wednesday 6-2.

"(Wednesday) the winds were coming across the field and it was a tough day to score run. Today it was blowing out toward right and we hit the ball very well."

After playing on the larger field on Wednesday, Prairie Ridge moved to a cozier field with shorter fences. With the wind blowing out over right field, the Wolves took full advantage, belting six home runs to finish with 10 extra-base hits.

"We were fortunate enough to hit some balls," said Pecoraro, who team banged out 17 hits. "The wind was blowing and it worked out for us."

Dustin Thelander got the home run derby started for Prairie Ridge (3-1) with a mammoth homer to right in the first. Carson Getzleman, Jacob Carpentier and Connor Schneider followed in the third while Cal Aldridge and Robin Kim each added a blast in the next two innings.

"I thought with the short porch in right and the wind blowing out it could be a day we could do some great things with the sticks," said Thelander, who had 2 RBI.

"And we did. It was a fun day at the plate."

Schneider had 3 hits and 3 RBI for the Wolves, while James Mikolajczewski also had 3 hits and a RBI. Carpentier had 2 hits and 2 RBI while Aldridge, Getzleman, Kim and Matt Mohapp each had 2 hits and a RBI.

Fremd (1-1) got a 2-run home run from Tom Austin in the third inning, which cut the margin to 8-4. But the Vikings got just two more hits from there to finish with 5 for the game.

Ian Bohn had 2 of those 5 hits for Fremd, which heads to Southern Illinois for a pair of games Friday and Saturday. Coach Chris Piggott hopes to turn things around there.

"They took advantage of our mistakes today," Piggott said, "and we just couldn't capitalize on theirs.

"It will be good to get away and hopefully a little warmer weather. It will give our guys some time to hang out together and get some camaraderie going."

Wheeling 6, Round Lake 0:

Wheeling pitcher Brian Lowrey was nearly unhittable. Lowrey allowed just 1 hit while pitching a shutout as Wheeling won its third consecutive game.

Lowrey fanned 11, walked none and allowed just 2 baserunners as the Wildcats improved to 3-1 on the season.

"It was a great pitching performance," Wheeling coach Jason Wieder said. "He threw strikes and worked quick and that is all important on a cold day."

Jake Jordan had a double and a triple for the Wildcats, driving in a run while Max Chung and Patrick Ryan each had RBI singles.