Story posted Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Arlington, Palatine Lead County In Wins
Joe Ingolia of Rolling Meadows starts for Mt. Prospect Post 525 in a game against Wilmette on June 25 at Kopp Park in Mt. Prospect. (Tom Wessell/The Journal)
By DWIGHT ESAU Journal Sports
Arlington Post 208 is off to another good start in Legion baseball in 2009.
Post 208 was 8-2 this week and owned the best record among the four Journal-area Legion baseball teams. This record does not include Arlington's participation in the Champaign tournament this past weekend, June 26-28.
Arlington has quickly grabbed hold of its perennial spot in the Cook County Legion League, on top at 7-1. The Cardinals, as they sometimes call themselves, have players from the Rolling Meadows, Prospect, and Hersey High School attendance areas, plus St. Viator players who live in this same area.
Arlington is led by such high school stars as Kyle Gaedele (Meadows), Jason Leblebijian (Prospect), Dave Serna of Prospect, and Brett Kay of St. Viator. They are the seven-time defending Cook County (First Division) Legion champions, and were state runner-ups to Belleville last year.
Over at Elk Grove, the Red Sox earned two wins and a postponement last week. The Sox did not play in a weekend tournament on June 26-28.
In a 4-3 win over Mt. Prospect Post 525 on June 28, the Red Sox got a 2-run homer from Tony Logli in the 4th inning for the win. Derek Wojcik improved to 3-1 with five solid innings of pitching, and Chris Hoffman pitched the final two innings to earn the save. Chris D'Angelo also homer ed for the Sox.
Earlier last week, the Red Sox romped to a 20-1 win over Lake Zurich in a non- league game. Colin Semler was 4-for-4 in a 19-hit Sox attack, and Tim Massat and George Kalousek both homered. A June 24 county game between the Sox and Glenview was postponed by rain.
The Sox improved to 9-6-1 overall and 4-5-1 in the county league.
Mt. Prospect, meanwhile, continued to struggle, despite its well-played game against Elk Grove last Sunday. Post 525 was forced to forfeit a game against the Wilmette Waves last week because a ninth player arrived five minutes late. Mt. Prospect's roster shows it has 17 players from Prospect, Buffalo Grove, Maine East, Maine West, St. Viator, and other area high schools, but it has had occasional difficulty collecting enough of them together for games.
On Mt. Prospect's roster are Brian Crowell, an all-conference player from Buffalo Grove; Justin Johann, Steve Zimmerman, and Ryan Tuntland from Maine West's Central Suburban-North conference champions; plus Alex Czubak, standout Maine East pitcher.
Posts 525 is winless so far in the 2009 season.
Cook County American Legion Baseball Standings (as of June 28)
Arlington 7-1-0
Palatine 6-1-1
Wilmette 4-2-0
Glenview 3-1-1
Elk Grove 4-5-1
Northbrook 3-3-0
Evanston 2-4-0
Portage Park 2-3-0
Morton Grove 2-6-1
Mt. Prospect 0-7-0
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