Baseball: Sanchez, Mundelein make this one count

It counted on the field this time for Division-I baseball recruits Steven Sanchez of Mundelein and Riley Gowens of Libertyville.

Friends, Slammers teammates and workout partners in the off-season, the two hard throwers matched up Monday in a much-anticipated North Suburban Conference showdown at Libertyville.

"It's always a competition between us," a smiling Sanchez said. "When we work out, it's like Libertyville vs. Mundelein, no matter what it is."

Which explained Sanchez's exuberance after he fanned the first three Wildcats he faced. The 6-foot-7, 235-pounder, Arkansas-bound lefty never let his energy dip in pitching Mundelein to a 3-0 win.

It was a huge victory for Mundelein (15-5, 10-3), which would have fallen 4 games back of first-place Libertyville (17-5, 12-1) with eight NSC games left. The teams play the second game in their three-game series Tuesday at Mundelein.

Libertyville won all three regular-season meetings last year, before Mundelein earned revenge in the sectional semifinals at Glenbrook South.

"Tough one to lose to him," Gowens, the 6-3, 205-pound, Illinois-bound right-hander said of Sanchez. "We'll see him again in the playoffs, and we'll be ready for him."

Sanchez dominated over 6 innings in his longest outing of the season. He allowed only 1 hit (a second-inning double to Luke Plunkett), struck out 12, walked three and hit a batter.

"It was a game that I really wanted to win because, in the past, we haven't done that well against Libertyville in the regular season," Sanchez said after throwing 108 pitches. "This was a big start for me."

Three of Sanchez's strikeouts were called. He relied more on finesse than his heavy fastball, especially with the wind blowing in.

"The wind really helped with the curveball," Sanchez said.

"When you're releasing the curveball 9 feet up in the air and it's got to come back down into that strike zone, that's a big break for a high school guy to handle," Mundelein coach Randy Lerner said with a chuckle. "A couple of (Libertyville) guys handled the bat pretty well and fought it off a little bit, but when his curveball, slider and (other) pitches are on, he's very challenging for high school hitters."

After Sanchez struck out the side in the first, he yelled, "Let's go!" as he hustled to the dugout.

"That gets me going, and then that gets my team going," he said.

Libertyville's best threat came in the fourth inning. The Wildcats had runners on second and third with one, but Sanchez got a swinging-strike three and popout.

Mundelein plated the only run it needed in second inning. With Austin Greco (two-out walk) on third and Mason Schaller (bunt single) on first, the Mustangs executed a double steal. Courtesy runner Connor Ashton got caught in a rundown between first and second, allowing Greco to cross home plate.

"We knew they were going to do something," Libertyville coach Matt Thompson said. "We haven't practiced a ton. We're making up games, playing every day. First-and-third situations, bunt situations ... We haven't had a lot of closes games too. We haven't been put in that situation where teams are needing to try to steal runs."

Mundelein manufactured another 2 runs in the fifth, again after two were out. TJ Yakimisky reached on an infield single and raced to third on Jared Dorfman's hit-and-run single. Leadoff batter Drew Breitenreiter (2-for-3, walk) followed with an RBI single to center. Dorfman scored when he stole third base and the throw, which deflected off Ryan Patel's bat, sailed down the left-field line.

Libertyville's Tanner Kelly (walk) and Tommy Rigali (single) reached base in the Libertyville seventh against Patel, whose second strikeout of the inning earned him the save.

Gowens pitched 5 innings (86 pitches), allowing all 3 runs (2 earned) and 4 singles. He struck out two and walked three.

"I've had success the whole season getting ahead with my fastball and then working in my curveball and changeup in good pitcher counts," said Gowens, who's had 16- and 14-strikeout games this season. "Today they just did a real good job of attacking me early in the count. They hit some balls hard, and their coach made a lot of good calls."