Baseball: Stone pitches Fox Lake to opening victory

Andrew Stone was rock solid for Fox Lake in the opening round of the American Legion baseball state tournament Wednesday in downstate Jerseyville.

Stone threw 7 innings of scoreless ball and Ben Kusiak picked up where Stone left off as Fox Lake blanked Quincy 3-0.

Fox Lake (16-2) will meet Highland, which beat Mt. Prospect 6-0, at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

"Andrew was completely on his game," Fox Lake coach Brian Talbott said. "He looked like a veteran out there. He showed toughness on the mound and challenged hitters and let his defense work."

Stone, who struck out nine and allowed just 5 hits, got offensive help from Ricky Allen. His RBI single in the fifth scored Ray Guardado, who had doubled for the only run Fox Lake needed. James Pendley homered in the eighth and Kusiak had an RBI single to score Nolan Unger for Fox Lake's other runs.

Mt. Prospect (20-10) had trouble from start to finish against Highland. Mt. Prospect committed 5 errors and couldn't get key hits when they needed them. Joe Sekulich and Kyle Sydowski each had 2 hits for Mt. Prospect while Tyler Haffey and John Hendry each had doubles.

"We just beat ourselves," acting coach Jim Haffey said. "From the first inning on, we just weren't in the game."

Mt. Prospect will meet Danville at 7 p.m. Thursday in an elimination game.