Strikeouts pile up and Mundelein knocks off Barrington in sectional semis
With a trip to the Class 4A sectional finals on the line, No. 2 Mundelein and No. 3 Barrington hooked up in a classic pitcher's duel Wednesday at Stevenson.
The Broncos got a jump on Mundelein's Ryan Geraghty in the top of the first with a single by J.D. Swarbrick and a double by Jake Kohanzo to put runners on second and third.
But Geraghty had a secret weapon - his wicked slider - leading to 3 strikeouts to end the threat.
Barrington starter Jackson Kanak was also impressive allowing just 1 run on 3 hits in 5⅔ innings.
In the end, the Mustangs held on for a 1-0 victory to advance to the sectional title game at 10 a.m. Saturday against No. 8 Fremd.
Geraghty, who allowed only 3 hits, struck out 7 in a row early in the game - and 8 of 9 at one point - and ended up with a career-high 15 strikeouts and no walks to earn the win.
"I knew they only had righties so I wanted to be breaking away from all that. I went with the slider and it was working really well early in the count for an easy strike one so I might as well go with it," said Geraghty, who would be ready to pitch in the supersectional Monday if Mundelein can advance. "We keep on scraping away the wins, and it doesn't matter what the score is as long as we get the W."
The Mustangs (26-5) got their tun in the sixth. No. 9-hitter Daniel Connelly (2-for-2, double) reached base on a 1-out single before being replaced by pinch-runner Michael Carlson. Mike Farina then doubled down the left-field line to drive in Carlson with what proved to be the game-winning run.
"We geared up for the fastball and he (Geraghty) threw probably about 85% sliders, so that's the part that kind of hurt us. Hats off to him," Barrington coach Pat Wire said.
"You don't keep a team like that (Mundelein) down, four or five guys can leave the yard, they're dangerous, and he (Kanak) negated it. It was a fantastic baseball game and that's just the way it goes when you've got two 25-win teams going at it."
The Broncos (25-8-2) got a single by Logan Eisenbarth to open the seventh before a strikeout, and pinch-hitter Harley Thompson's out on a squibber moved the runner to second with 2 outs. But Geraghty got the last batter to strike out swinging to mark the second straight year the Mustangs have eliminated Barrington from the state tournament.
"He (Geraghty) persevered through that first inning with the first two guys on, and to be able to get out of that inning unscathed was huge for his confidence and huge for us," said Mundelein coach Randy Lerner.
"Ryan came into the dugout in the top of the sixth and all he said was just get me one and that's all he needed."