Talking a lot of baseball

Time to pour out a lot of the news and notes stockpiled lately in the notepads...

Rolling Meadows had a lot of holes to fill after winning the Mid-Suburban East last year. But the impressive work of Kentucky-bound left-hander Jon Carlson and a pair of solid starts from senior Teddy Metzger has the Mustangs at 5-0 in the league going into the 6-game crossover portion of the schedule. "Teddy threw the ball well and had better command than he had early (in the season)," Meadows coach Jim Lindeman said of his 9-3 win Wednesday over Buffalo Grove.
And the Mustangs still have room to get better after 3 errors allowed Elk Grove to get back in the game and forced Carlson out of it in the fifth at 111 pitches in an 8-4 victory. "If we can just make some plays ... just make good errors," Lindeman of misplays because of poor throwing or defensive fundamentals. "Making these errors, it looks like they're physical, but in my mind they're mental errors."
One area that's helping Carlson keep his pitch count down is his control. He now has 11 walks and 56 strikeouts in 33 innings. "The past few years I had quite a few walks," Carlson said. "One of my big goals was to cut down on my walks by at least half and I'm doing a good job there."

Hersey and Barrington are trying to do something no one in the MSL has done since 1995 (which is how far back my day-to-day records go) by recovering from an 0-2 start to win a division title. Both took big steps in that direction by winning all three of their division games the last three days after losing two 1-run heartbreakers.
Hersey rebounded from a pair of disappointing losses to Rolling Meadows, Wheeling and Grant to end last week by beating Elk Grove 4-3 and coming back for wins over Prospect (8-5) and BG (12-4). Senior Joe Koziol had a pair of huge saves this week - one on the mound to stop Elk Grove's seventh-inning rally and the other with his glove in left field Friday to keep BG from possibly taking a 7-1 lead in the third inning.
"We've got our swagger back," Koziol said. "Our pitchers are throwing the ball better, especially the last three starts. Chris (James), Steve (Danielak) and (Ryan) Busse threw real good games and it's nice to get back on track.
"We were real down because we weren't playing well and we knew we weren't playing to our potential. We knew we'd have to pick it up and we turned it around after the BG game."
Busse also turned a corner after losing his first 2 starts to St. Viator and Grant. After Hersey's big 6-run fourth to take a 7-4 lead, Busse went out and did what you want a pitcher to do by not letting BG come close to getting back in the game. "There haven't been many innings where he hasn't had people on base and been in trouble," said Hersey coach Bob Huber. "He's struggled but hopefully he'll get a little confidence from this. He got better."
That would give Hersey a nice 1-2-3 with James and Danielak. "This start I definitely calmed down a lot and grew more mentally tough," Busse said. "This was a big week where big things happened with three great wins. Hopefully the momentum carries on."
Barrington is hoping to do the same after beating Palatine 6-2, Schaumburg 9-8 and West leader Fremd 11-0 in 6 innings. Lefty Robby McDonnell saved the Schamburg win and came back with an impressive 88-pitch effort where he threw a 3-hitter with 5 strikeouts and 2 walks against Fremd. He also helped himself in Mark Buehrle-esque fashion with his glove.
"He did a great job," said Barrington coach Jim Hawrysko. "He was in the zone with his pitches and competed really well. He played really good defense on three comebackers and did a great job defensively.
"I'm really happy how we responded from the first two conference games (Hoffman Estates and Conant). To come back and do this, they did a great job of competing."

Fremd saw its 8-game winning streak snapped Friday but had recovered nicely from a 1-4 start. "We started off slow but we're coming back now," junior Clint Terry said after going 3-for-3 in Wednesday's 5-3 win over Conant ace Walt Wijas.
"After the first five games we really have swung the bats well and our pitching has come along and gotten better. Defensively we have to keep making the routine plays. What I tell them is just make the plays you're supposed to make. Take care of the baseball, like in football and basketball, and you've got a good chance to win."

Conant rebounded from the Fremd loss in varying extremes. On Thursday, Paul Warble stopped Palatine 2-0 for the Cougars' fifth shutout of the season. On Friday, they hit 3 homers and had 18 hits in a 21-4 romp over Hoffman Estates. Pored over the records but Conant hasn't hit the 20-run mark since 1995.

Prospect and Palatine needed boosts and got them on the mound Friday. Prospect coach Ross Giusti wasn't sure if John Coen would be able to pitch this week after he was hit on his right hand with an errant pickoff in Wednesday's win over Wheeling. But he took the ball and was impressive in a 2-0 win over Elk Grove on Friday. "He was keeping his curveball down and mixing in a fastball and our defense did a nice job," Giusti said of the junior. "He just said he was ready to go. John really wanted the ball and he stepped up."
Palatine lefty Kevin Becker had his best game of the year with a 3-2 win at Schaumburg where he scattered 5 hits and had 3 strikeouts and 1 walk. "He was solid with his changeup and he did a great job of keeping the ball down in the zone," said Palatine coach Paul Belo. "It was a great effort."

This week was a rough one for Elk Grove and BG. The Grens' high-powered offense was stifled by three impressive efforts by Hersey's Chris James, Meadows' Jon Carlson and Prospect's John Coen. "We've definitely run into two good pitchers the last two days," said Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna after an 8-4 loss to Meadows. "I don't suspect it will get much easier. To win a division or the MSL you need to beat guys like that."
BG was fortunate to beat Wheeling 12-2 on Thursday despite 8 errors. It wasn't as fortunate with 6 errors and a critical passed ball in Friday's loss to Hersey. "It was a tale of two games," said BG coach Jeff Grybash. "We bunted the ball well (early) and moved guys over and it was a team effort. Then a couple of things go against us and we can't stop the roll. If we make the routine plays we're a good baseball team but if we don't we're going to be a below-average team." BG did get nice diving catches Friday from center fielder Matt Stadler and left fielder J.P. Kulick.

One of the biggest surprises so far is Leyden, which lost a ton of talent including White Sox draft pick and pitcher Jonathan Weaver, from consecutive regional champions. But the young Eagles were 10-5 and right in the hunt in the West Suburban Gold going into Saturday's key doubleheader at Morton, where they'll likely face Missouri-bound lefty Ryan Crowley and talented junior Jeremy Wilson.
Leyden got a big boost from 6-4 junior righty Dan Savas, who just became eligible after transferring from Arizona. Leyden coach Gary Wolf, who is 4 wins from 400 for his career, said Savas throws in the mid-80s and is definitely a Division I prospect. In his first start he had 13 Ks against Hinsdale South and in his second start had 9 Ks in 5 innings against Addison Trail. "He can bring it," Wolf said. "The first day of practice I saw him playing long catch and knew we had something special. It was like a late Christmas present. He's probably one of our best athletes and a high-character type of kid." That gives the Eagles a strong 1-2-3 with Ricky Zapata and Jeremy Stawychny.
Savas also helped himself with 3 doubles in one of the wildest things Wolf has seen. Leyden trailed 3-0 at AT when it scored 12 runs after two outs in the third inning of a 15-3 win. Mike Otte's 2-run double started an onslaught of 13 hits withno errors. "It was crazy," Wolf said. "One after another after another. I asked for ice for a kid and (AT coach Paul) Parpet said to me, 'What, do you want it for your shoulder because you're waving around everyone?' We had some great at-bats that inning and every hit was to center or right-center."