THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008
Knights Close Gap On Mustangs, 11-8
By BOBBY CHILVER
Journal Sports
Prospect jumped right back into the Mid-Suburban League East title race Monday with a wild 11-8 victory over division-leading Rolling Meadows.
The Knights answered with runs each time they fell behind and scored three in the bottom of the sixth to break an 8-8 tie and pull within a game of the Mustangs.
"Today certainly was a big confidence builder," Prospect coach Ross Giusti said. "To say we've struggled in the last week in an understatement,"
That's because the Knights entered Monday having lost their last four MSL games and needed the win to stay within reach of the division lead. But it was Meadows who came out strong with their first three hitters reaching and scoring two to take the early lead.
But the Prospect bats would be even more impressive in the first. Their first seven batters reached in the first inning and all seven came around to score as Prospect took advantage of Meadows starter Jon Carlson's control problems. Tim Scanlan, Andrew Cardona and Miles Osei had RBI hits as the Knights took control after one.
Both pitchers settled down from there and went through three scoreless innings before the Mustang bats would get hot again.
Dan Lauria led off the fifth with a double with Kyle Gaedele and Jon Carlson following with singles. Teddy Metzger drove in another run with an RBI single and it was 7-4. After a strikeout it appeared Prospect starter Dominic Pugliese had escaped on a two-out groundball to second but the ball bounced into right field on an error and two runs came home. Next batter Kevin Serna made the Knights pay for the miscue with a 2-run rope to left, giving Meadows the 8-7 lead. Prospect then brought in Alex Lazarz in relief, who got out of the inning with the bases loaded and escaped any further damage.
That would prove key as the Knights quickly answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth off a Matt Smith single. Cardona tried to score from second on the single but Gaedele threw a perfect strike home to deny the go-ahead run.
Then in the bottom of the sixth the Knights took the lead for good as Shane Uhle walked with the bases loaded and two more runs came home on another Meadows error, of which they had five on the day.
The Mustangs managed to load the bases in the top of the seventh but Lazarz struck out Carlson on a big curve to end the game and finish off his 2-1/3 innings of scoreless relief.
"This was big for me," Lazarz, who admitted he has struggled of late, said. "And it's big for our team too, with the win."
The Knights are now 7-4 in the MSL while Meadows drops to 8-3.
"This was almost like a must-win for us," Scanlan added.
Meadows coach Jim Lindeman agreed.
"Obviously it was a bigger game for them than us," he said. "But if we play like we did today, we might not win another in the conference."
Lindeman has been frustrated with the Mustang defense, which has been the one weak spot throughout the year.
"We can out hit other guys," he said. "If we catch the ball we'll be okay."
So now Prospect will hope for another Meadows slipup as they also hold the tiebreaker with two wins over the Mustangs this year.
It's coming down to the last week as usual in the MSL and every game could be the difference between a title and second place.
In other weekend action:
Most of the MSL games were postponed Friday because of bad weather. Prospect at Hoffman Estates, Rolling Meadows at Palatine and Wheeling at Schaumburg were set to play yesterday (Tuesday) while Elk Grove at Conant will be played tomorrow (Thursday),
In the two Friday games that were played, Hersey and Buffalo Grove fell in blowout loses.
Fremd rolled over Hersey 18-4 while BG fell 10-3 to Barrington.
On Saturday, Wheeling and Fremd finished an MSL match up postponed by lightning earlier in the season. Wheeling earned a quality win as they took down Fremd, 7-6. Matt Holmes was 2-for-4 with 3 RBI as the 'Cats jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two. Anthony Ricciardi pitched three quality innings of relief and Steve Slussar earned the save for Wheeling.
Also on Saturday, Rolling Meadows dropped a nonconference game to York, 8-6. Eight errors were the culprit in the loss as the Mustangs lost a 10-game win streak. Dan Lauria hit a home run and Ben Sabal, Pat Conlin, Joe Ingolia and Jon Carlson all had mult-hit games for the Mustangs.