Baseball: Highland Park stuns Stevenson
Highland Park's baseball team built a 3-0 lead after two innings, and host Stevenson could never recover, as the Patriots were stunned 4-2 in their own Class 4A regional semifinal Wednesday.
Stevenson, the No. 2 seed in the St. Viator sectional, finishes 23-10.
Ryan McElhinny was 2-for-2 with a double for the Patriots, and Michael D'Angelo had a double and an RBI.
No. 15 Highland Park advances to Saturday's 11 a.m. final against the winner of Thursday's game between No. 7 Libertyville and No. 11 Mundelein.
Vernon Hills 5, Woodstock North 3: At Crystal Lake South, Derek Jarrell and Caleb Thomson led the fifth-seeded Cougars to victory in the Class 3A regional semifinal.
Vernon Hills (18-12) will face No. 4 Crystal Lake South in the regional championship at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Jarrell started on the bump against No. 12 Woodstock North and pitched 4 solid innings, allowing only 2 runs on 3 hits. Thomson threw 2 innings of relief, allowing 1 run. Alex Yu closed the game, throwing a scoreless seventh.
With Vernon Hills down 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth, Jarrell led off with a solo homer that awoke the Cougars, who scored two more runs in the inning and added one more in the sixth. Thomson (2-for-4, 2 doubles), Brendan Holloway (1-for-3, double) and Jake Morris (1-for-2, double) also had extra-base hits.
Jarrell was also a standout defensively. With one out in the sixth and the score 4-3, he made a diving backhand play down the third-base line to turn a would-be double into an out.
Grayslake Central 10, Harvard 0: At Grayslake Central, the second-seeded and host Rams won the Class 3A regional semifinal in six innings, as Ethan Peterson, Kevin O'Brien, Aaron Lieberman and Sean Gniadek combined on a 2-hitter.
Grayslake Central (24-7) advances to play in its own regional final at 11 a.m. Saturday against the winner of Thursday's game between No. 6 Lake View and No. 10 Lakes. That game will be played at the College of Lake County at 4 p.m.
Offensively for the Rams, Nic Presutti hit his second homer on the season and drove in 2 runs. Daniel Rogers added a pair of hits with 2 RBI, and Marcus Maristela doubled.
Carmel 16, Woodstock 0: At Richmond-Burton, Lukas Galdoni, Drew Wiegman and Tino Alivia all homered for the Corsairs in the Class 3A regional semifinal.
Dylan Paquette earned the win, pitching 3 innings in a game that last four. He also went 2-for-3 with a double and 3 RBI. Wiegman finished 2-for-2 with 4 RBI. Jake Adams contributed a double.
No. 3 Carmel (17-7) advances to Saturday's 10 a.m. final against the winner of Thursday's game between No. 8 Richmond-Burton and No. 11 Marengo.
Warren 9, Grayslake North 4: At Warren, Ryan DeVries doubled and drove in 3 runs, as the host Blue Devils won the Class 4A regional semifinal.
Nate Rentas also had a double for top-seeded Warren (31-4), which advances to Saturday's 10 a.m. final on its home field against the winner of Thursday's game between No. 8 Palatine and No. 9 St. Viator.
Rentas finished 2-for-2, while Thomas Kenney was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Ryan Scanlon earned the win, allowing 4 runs while striking out eight in 5⅓ innings. Bradley Vondruska picked up the save, striking out four in 1⅔ innings of no-hit ball.
No. 17 Grayslake North finished 11-18.