Baseball: Constertina pitches Buffalo Grove into regional final

Buffalo Grove's TJ Constertina made his coach look really smart Wednesday in the second round of Class 4A regional baseball action at Palatine.

Constertina, who is the No. 2 pitcher in the Bison rotation, was masterful at times in leading his team to a 7-2 victory over Grayslake North.

It's the second consecutive year that Buffalo Grove eliminated Grayslake North in the regionals. The Bison won last year 5-1 in the regional finals.

Sectional top seed Buffalo Grove (26-6) will meet the winner of Thursday's matchup between Palatine and Deerfield for the regional championship at 11 a.m. Saturday. Buffalo Grove is expected to throw No. 1 pitcher Zach Fricke in that game.

Bison coach Tim Miller did not think it was much of a stretch to go with Constertina over Fricke in the regional opener.

"He (Constertina) is a pretty good No. 2," Miller said. "TJ is a competitor. You say No. 2, but he is right there with Zach. Fricke throws a little bit harder, but for two years, TJ has been pretty effective."

Constertina went the distance, while fanning eight. He allowed just 6 hits and was really only in trouble in one inning.

"I was ready for the situation," Constertina said. "Coach trusts me and I trust myself. I know I am going to come out here and give us a good outing and put us in situation to win each game."

Grayslake North (18-15-1), seeded 16th and coming off of a 10-inning victory over Hersey on Tuesday, took a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

An infield hit by Andrew Keaskowski and a sharp single to center by Trace Taskovic along with a throwing error put runners on second and third with one out. Regen Marsell's long fly to left scored Keaskowski for the Knights.

It also began a string of 11 consecutive batters retired by Constertina. Sandwiched inside the streak were 5 consecutive strikeouts by the senior.

"I thought I had good stuff," Constertina said. "The curveball wasn't working well at the beginning. But I got control of it toward the end and it helped me out."

Miller said he has his complete faith in Constertina.

"TJ is very mentally tough," Miller said. "He is a kid I can put full confidence in at any time. He usually comes out on top."

With Constertina keeping the Knights in line, it was time for the Bison bats to awaken. Buffalo Grove banged out 12 hits, with 8 different players getting a hit.

"I started out with a base hit in the second inning and that got things started for us," said Buffalo Grove's Rio Komatani, who had 3 hits. "It was lots of fun. We started scoring each inning and that's how we won."

Komatani and courtesy runner Dan Pocklington scored in the second on Sean Jacobs' solid single to center to make it 2-1 Bison.

Buffalo Grove added runs in each of the next two innings to make it 4-1 after 4 innings. Komatani had an RBI single scoring Riley Rundquist, who had reached on an error. Fricke singleed to right in the fourth scoring Matt Brunelli, who had singled to lead off the inning.

Buffalo Grove broke the game open in the fifth thanks to a towering 2-run homer to left by Rundquist. Alex Paul, who was running for Komatani, later scored that inning as a part of an attempted double steal.

"Coach told me to wait back," Rundquist said. "They were pitching me outside. I then waited back and he threw me a fastball. He misplaced it and I took advantage of it."

Carter Gledhill finished with a pair of hits for BG.

Grayslake North tried to get back in the game in the sixth. Jason Donahue, who had 2 hits, scored on a sacrifice fly by Austin DeLao. The Knights then had runners in the corners with one out, but Constertina got a strikeout and groundout to end the threat.

"I thought their pitcher did a great job," Grayslake North coach Brett Hill said. "Even when we made adjustments and hit the ball hard, they made plays. There were no bonus bases."

Hill said he was proud of the way his team, especially his seniors, battled this season.

"This senior group was special," Hill said. "In 12 conference series, they won 11 of them. And they went 40-26-1 in two seasons. They are a group we are going to miss."