Baseball: Barrington's Holler silences Fremd's bats
Barrington's Nate Holler quieted Fremd Wednesday.
Holler struck out 11 and allowed just 2 hits as Barrington knocked off Fremd 6-2 in Mid-Suburban West baseball action in Palatine.
"My fastball was just pounding the zone," said Holler, who improved to 6-0 on the season.
"I felt it again with my slider. I have been using it a lot. They are a good team. I was just hitting my spots and keeping them off balance."
Barrington (18-4, 7-1) swept the season series from Fremd (11-8, 6-2). It also enabled the Broncos to take over sole possession of first place in the MSL West.
"This was a big win for us," Barrington coach Pat Wire said. "They are a very good team. We didn't want to come out of here with a split and have to chase them for the rest of the year because they could run the table."
Wire said the pitching by Holler on Wednesday and by RJ Nowicki, who shut out Fremd on Monday, has given the Broncos some breathing room.
"Fremd is one of the best lineups we have seen all season," Wire said. "For Nowicki and Holler to do what they did, I am ecstatic."
Barrington got its offense going early to get Holler the runs he needed.
The six-spot in the lineup is the sweet spot for John Seagrist. The senior, who moved to the sixth spot in the batting order on Tuesday and knocked out a grand slam, homered for the second day in a row with a blast to left-center field on Wednesday that made it 1-0 in the second.
"The last two days I have had pretty good success in the six-spot," Seagrist said. "It felt so good. I got so much support from the dugout. It felt good off the bat. I saw it all the way in."
The Broncos pushed across 3 runs in the next inning thanks to some manufacturing by Barrington and an error and passed ball by Fremd.
AJ Christoffer walked and eventually scored on Clark Elliott's sacrifice fly. Rayth Petersen reached on a fielders choice bunt that turned into an error. He would later score on Will Koehler's single. Max Raynor, who reached first on a passed ball after striking out, would later score on Seagrist's sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
Fremd coach Chris Piggott said that poor play cost his team.
"You can't give a good team extra at-bats," Piggott. "You have to make plays and we didn't do that."
Barrington pushed over another run in the fourth when Christoffer singled home Nate Gaida, who had singled and advanced on an error.
Fremd closed the gap to 5-2 in the fifth. Charlie Towns singled home Will Josten, who was hit by a pitch, and Ryan Kiolbassa who had singled.
Barrington got one of those runs back when Petersen scored on a fielders choice ground by Koehler.
Holler closed the door after that. He gave way after he reached the max pitch count on a strikeout for the second out in the seventh. Andreas Reaume came on to get the final out for the Broncos.
Despite the losses to Barrington, Piggott still likes the direction of his team.
"They have our number a little bit," Piggott said. "We have to have better at-bats against good pitchers. But we are improving. We are a good team. We are just not quite there yet. We are close, but we have to fix some things."