Baseball: Combo 1-hitter for Elk Grove's Taucher, Leone
Elk Grove's Brett Taucher and Joe Leone combined on a 1-hitter to help the host Grenadiers past Wheeling 7-0 in a Mid-Suburban East baseball matchup Monday.
Taucher started and allowed no hits with 5 strikeouts through 5 innings. Leone allowed just a single to Wheeling's Joey Sineni in 2 innings.
Joe Lopez had a pair of hits for East Division leader Elk Grove (15-6, 8-1), and Chuck Fleming finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. A.J. Lorenz and AJ Navarro both doubled and drove in a run, and Jack McEnroe, Ryan Uehara and Luke Radtke finished with 1 RBI apiece.
St. Viator 8, Marian Central 7 (10 inn.): Jack Sexton's walk-off single finally ended the East Suburban Catholic Conference contest - and got St. Viator coach Mike Manno to a significant milestone.
The Lions (12-10) scored 1 run in the bottom of the seventh to tie, then needed to score 1 run in the bottom of the ninth to again stay alive.
Sexton finished with 4 singles and 2 stolen bases. St. Viator also got big efforts from Mike Ragauskis (2 hits), John Finnegan (3-for-5), and Chris Lolli. Dan Sullivan contributed an RBI double, and Jack Heneghan earned a victory with two-thirds of an inning of relief.
The triumph marked victory No. 200 in Manno's coaching tenure at St. Viator.
Fremd 1, Palatine 0: Tommy Josten's RBI groundout produced the game's only run as JT Kolderup won a pitching duel with Palatine's Chris Refka in a game which had no errors.
Kolderup allowed 5 singles, no walks and struck out six in his second straight dominant performance.
Refka was sharp as well. He fanned 10 and also allowed 5 hits.
Troy Hajdukovic went 2-for-2 for Fremd (11-5, 8-2), which stayed 1 game behind West Division leader Barrington.
Palatine slipped to 12-11 overall and 6-4 in the West.
Prospect 8, Buffalo Grove 0: Knights starter Ben Courtney allowed 5 hits, all singles, in a complete game as host Prospect produced a one-sided win at home to pull into a second-place divisional title with the Bison in the MSL East.
Grant Zellmer led an 11-hit attack for Prospect (13-5, 5-4) with 2 doubles and 2 RBI. Other big hitters for the Knights included Richie Baszek (2-for-3), Ryan Molini (1-for-3, 3 RBI) and Nick Ergostolo (3-for-3, double).
Tyler Rundquist had a pair of hits for Buffalo Grove (9-11, 5-4), which was shut out for a second straight time.
Barrington 10, Hoffman Estates 5: Brooks Gosswein tossed 5 innings of 2-hit, 1-run ball, during which visiting Barrington generated enough offense to withstand a late rally by the Hawks in MSL West play.
The division-leading Broncos (18-6, 9-1) scored in every inning but the fourth, with Tristan Michaels and Patrick Dehnert doing much of the damage with a double and a home run each. Tyler Acosta also bunted safely and hit a 2-run homer.
Dylan Bloom connected for a 3-run homer in the seventh inning for Hoffman Estates (7-11, 2-9).
Hersey 8, Rolling Meadows 4: Tanner Luke doubled and drove in 3 runs, and teammate Luke LaSalvia also had 3 RBI as the host Huskies (6-12, 3-6) earned an MSL East victory.
Matt Johnson pitched 5⅓ innings, allowing 10 hits but only 3 earned runs. Mark Losacco relieved and got the save after producing 1⅔ hitless innings.
Jack Lincoln, Marco Perez, Mark Dillon and Justin Thompson each had 2 hits for Rolling Meadows (0-18, 0-9).
Leyden 5, Hinsdale South 4: Michael Wilms drove in the go-ahead run as the host Eagles rallied for 5 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning against the West Suburban Gold champs.
Matt Ozanic had a 2-run double in that big inning for Leyden (11-11), and Justin Borges finished with 2 hits. Adrian Perez was rewarded with a victory after tossing a complete game. He allowed 8 hits and 3 earned runs.
Hinsdale South slipped to 21-4 overall.
Conant 6, Schaumburg 3: The host Cougars led 6-0 through 6 innings, which turned out to be enough to weather a final rally by the Saxons in MSL West play.
Conant's Nick Roberts played a key role in the outcome. He produced an RBI triple in the first inning and went on to pitch 6 scoreless innings for the Cougars (11-12, 4-5). Also driving in runs for Conant were Jimmy Brady, Ryan Roberts, Jim McLaughlin and Logan Smith.
Jacob Rintz had a double, the only extra-base hit for the Saxons (11-9, 5-5).