Baseball: Barrington shuts out Fremd

Barrington's RJ Nowicki didn't have his mind on the traditional holiday feast this past weekend.

"I was focused on my pitching for my game Monday," Nowicki said. " I really didn't think about the holiday that much. I was going over batters and getting prepared."

Nowicki was more than ready Monday as he pitched host Barrington to a 4-0 Mid-Suburban West baseball win over Fremd in a game called in the top of the sixth inning due to lightning and rain.

Nowicki struck out six and walked one while allowing 6 hits. He was also the beneficiary of two double plays, one of which bailed him out nicely in the fifth.

"I felt real good out there," Nowicki said. "And when those guys got on base, the defense was able to bail us out with a couple of clutch double plays, especially the one in the fifth."

Barrington was able to take a 2-0 lead in the third.

Raytheon Petersen got a one-out single and went to second on a fielders choice. He came home to score on a long double by Max Raynor. Will Koehler followed with a single to right to score Raynor.

"We have been coached to react to the pitch, especially like that one," said Raynor, who also had a pair of sacrifice bunts.

"They were working up in the zone and trying to get guys to strike out on a high pitch. I think he kind of missed and I was able to take advantage of it."

Barrington coach Pat Wire said that Raynor's hit came at the right time for the Broncos.

"I was proud of Max Raynor, who broke the ice," Wire said. "We had him bunt the first time and it didn't work out for us. With him to come up with that huge two-out double was big for us."

Barrington was able to double its lead in the fourth.

John Seagrist walked and went to second on a sacrifice bunt. AJ Christoffer, who had a pair of long fly outs in his first two at-bats, made sure he put the ball where no Fremd player could get it when he drilled a fastball over the left field scoreboard.

"The first two at-bats he was jamming me up," said Christoffer, who has 3 homers this season.

"So I had to make an adjustment. I got on top of it and the wind was blowing out a little bit and it was a pretty good feeling."

Fremd (10-7, 5-1), which had its eight-game winning streak snapped, appeared to be on the edge of breaking through against Nowicki in the sixth.

With one out, Nowicki surrendered a walk to Brent Swenson and then a single to Austin Higgins, his second hit of the game. But during a mound visit by Barrington pitching coach Dan Pohlman, the lighting detector went off and the game was never restarted.

"They did a good job of keeping us off balance and we didn't make any adjustments," Fremd coach Chris Piggott said. "We finally made some adjustments and then the game was stopped."

The officials waited nearly an hour to resume play, before finally halting the contest. According to MSL rules, the game is considered official. But the two teams will be back playing each other on Wednesday at Fremd in a new game.