Baseball: Richards stifles Lemont
By Pat Disabato pdisabato@southtownstar.com April 12, 2012 10:46PM
Lemont's Bill Hayes is tagged out at second base by Richards's Jim Wujcik. | Judy Fidkowski~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: May 14, 2012 8:25AM
A challenging early season schedule may not have paid dividends in the win column for Richards, which was 3-5 through eight games.
However, it’s paying off now.
Richards won for the seventh time in its last eight games, dumping host Lemont 8-2 on Thursday in a South Suburban crossover.
The Bulldogs (10-6, 5-0) belted 10 hits against three Lemont pitchers, including highly regarded sophomore lefty Jake Latz.
“We not only faced some tough competition early on, we faced some really good left-handed pitching,” Richards coach Brian Wujcik said. “Maybe that helped us today.”
Jake Beiriger (2-for-4) and Jordan Julian stroked RBI singles that helped Richards to a 3-2 lead after six innings.
The Bulldogs exploded for five runs in the seventh to put the game away. Jesse Valenti (2-for-3) drove in two of those runs with a single and Lou Castro (2-for-4) delivered an RBI single.
“When the score was 3-2, I was sitting there thinking we were striking out and popping up with runners on base too much and it might come back to hurt us,” Wujcik said. “In the seventh, we did a nice job of putting the ball in play and capitalizing on their mistakes.”
After back-to-back singles by Kyle Milinowisch and Gio Schmitt to start the bottom of the first inning, Lemont (7-6, 3-2) would record one more hit the rest of the game, a single by Tyler Jay in the sixth.
Richards starting pitcher Kyle Mastalerz went five strong innings, mixing his pitches and keeping the Indians off balance. He walked two and struck out one. Vince Boettger and Jon Danielson did a nice job in relief to preserve the win.
Lemont coach Joe Rodeghero was not pleased with his team’s effort.
“In the first inning we get two hits and let them off the hook,” he said. “We were content the rest of the game. Our pitchers need to do a better job of pounding the strike zone.”
Lemont pitchers walked six and hit two batters.
No. 2 Plainfield North 6, Oswego East 0: Brendan Miller (4-0) gave up one hit over seven innings for host Plainfield North (12-1, 5-1) in the Southwest Prairie.
No. 3 Joliet Catholic 7, Divine Child (Mich.) 2: Nate Searing drove in two runs and struck out seven to spark host Joliet Catholic (9-3).
Plainfield South 14, No. 8 Minooka 3: Enrique Perez nabbed the win for Plainfield South (10-5, 5-1), which triumphed in five innings in the Southwest Prairie match-up at Minooka (9-8, 3-3).
No. 10 Coal City 8, Clifton Central 0: Nate Chapman (1-1) allowed two hits in the complete-game shutout for visiting Coal City (8-8).
Plainfield East 11, Plainfield Central 1: Tom Vachon (three hits) drove in three runs while Matt Kramer added a home run and two RBI for host Plainfield East (6-9, 2-4). Plainfield Central (8-5-1) managed just one hit in the Southwest Prairie tilt.
Lincoln-Way East 9, Brother Rice 3: Tommy Fuessel smacked a three-run homer to spark visiting Lincoln-Way East (9-4).
Lisle 8, Peotone 0: Visiting Peotone had just one hit in the Interstate Eight affair.
Richards 8, Lemont 2: Lemont (7-5, 3-2) fell at home in the South Suburban crossover.
Softball
No. 5 Minooka 4, No. 1 Plainfield South 0: Angelina Vargas scratched out two of the four hits for Plainfield South (11-3, 3-1) in the Southwest Prairie clash in Plainfield.
No. 9 Plainfield East 6, No. 4 Plainfield Central 5: Winning pitcher Annie Molek’s game-winning hit lifted Plainfield East (10-7), which scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Visiting Plainfield Central (11-4) is 2-2 in the Southwest Prairie.
Lisle 5, No. 7 Peotone 4: Danielle Liberatore (8-2) struck out 16 in a complete-game outing for visiting Peotone (12-2, 3-1), which fell in nine innings in the Interstate Eight game.
Coal City 20, Grant Park 7: Gabby Bonic exploded for three hits, including a three-run home run, and six RBI to guide visiting Coal City (9-4).
Romeoville 5, Oswego 4: Brooke Riess had an RBI triple to lead visiting Romeoville (4-7, 1-3) in Southwest Prairie play.
Boys Water Polo
Andrew 14, Lincoln-Way East 8: Host Lincoln-Way East (2-12) fell to its SouthWest Suburban opponent.
Homewood-Flossmoor 17, Lincoln-Way West 4: Kurt Butterfield scored twice for visiting Lincoln-Way West.
Girl Water Polo
Andrew 10, Lincoln-Way East 9: Andrew scored a goal as time expired. Zoe McCabe’s four goals led visiting Lincoln-Way East (4-6) in the SouthWest Suburban tilt.
Lincoln-Way Central 20, Stagg 9: Brittany Knowlton netted eight goals to propel Lincoln-Way Central (9-4) in Palos Hills.
College Baseball
Olivet Nazarene 10, St. Francis 4: Jesse Gregurich drove in two runs as visiting St. Francis (25-11, 5-4) saw its nine-game winning streak snapped in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference South crossover.
Lewis 15, St. Xavier 14: Mike Boilling’s walk-off RBI with two out capped a five-run ninth-inning rally for host Lewis (21-10). Bolling also hit a solo home run in the contest.
Contributing: Matt Bruce
