Baseball: Elk Grove wins third straight MSL East title

Even when there was cause for celebration, Elk Grove was all business Wednesday in Mt. Prospect.

The Grenadiers took their third consecutive Mid-Suburban East baseball title in stride when they beat Prospect 10-3.

"We are all having a good time out here," said Chuck Fleming, who had a double and a RBI. "We still have business to take care of and more important games ahead of us."

That first important game will be the MSL title game when Elk Grove (19-9, 11-3) will play Barrington for the MSL title a week from Friday in Barrington. It will be a rematch of teams from last year's championship game, which Elk Grove won.

Coach Terry Beyna and his Grens will be seeking their third consecutive MSL crown.

But first, the two teams will play next Monday in the final regular-season MSL game for both teams.

"It is an accomplishment we are proud of," Beyna said. "There will be some strategy in what we want to show them on Monday. But it will be fun."

Elk Grove had plenty of fun on Wednesday, belting out 12 hits.

"We knew we had a tough test today," Beyna said. "It is nice to get some early runs and weather their push."

Elk Grove tallied twice in the first when AJ Lorenz doubled home Christian Camacho, who had singled.

Jack McEnroe then followed with his first of 2 hits to score Lorenz.

"Everyone is starting to hit well," McEnroe said. "All that extra work we are putting in. Guys are coming in early. Everyone is there and everyone is starting to hit."

The Grens scored two more runs in the third to make it 4-0 with nearly the same formula as the first inning, as Fleming doubled and scored on Ryan Uehara's single. Uehara then scored on a single by AJ Navarro.

With Christian Camacho on the mound for the Grens, 4 runs figured to be quite enough.

Especially after Camacho went through the first three innings without allowing a hit and fanning five.

Prospect (16-8, 8-6) came alive in the fourth when the Knights strung together four consecutive hits to score 2 runs off Camacho. Trevor Engquist doubled, Grant Zellmer singled and Ryan Howe doubled for one run. Travis Gates singled home another.

But Camacho shut the door by striking out the next two batters and getting the final out on a grounder. "The early runs helped me relax a bit," said Camacho, who struck out 11. "They hit me pretty hard but I was able to settle down when I needed to."

Elk Grove was able to pull away by tallying runs in the final three innings.

Lorenz, who had 3 hits, knocked in his second run of the game during that span and McEnroe doubled in another run.

Although he was disappointed with the loss, Prospect coach Ross Giusti liked the way his team swung the bat.

"I thought we had a pretty good approach up there today," said Giusti, whose team collected 7 hits. "This is what we have been doing all year and our offense has done a real nice job."