Baseball: Maine South's Schau overcomes weather, Prospect
The cold didn't seem to bother Maine South's Charlie Schau.
The Hawks senior ignored the 33 degree game-time temperature to lead Maine South past Prospect 7-2 Monday in Mt. Prospect.
Schau was all deuces. He banged out a pair of hits, knocked in a pair of runs, scored a pair of runs and pitched a pair of innings in relief for Maine South (4-2).
"A cold day is a good day," Schau said. "It is hard to feel your fingers at times when it is this cold. But you can't ask for anything better than that. I just focused on my mechanics and not trying to do much with the ball. It is all you can do."
Both teams were coming off their spring breaks. But with the weather last week not cooperating, Maine South played just two games while Prospect managed just one contest.
With the sun shining and a lighter breeze, both coaches agreed that despite the cold temperatures, it would still be worth it for their teams to play.
"We are used to this," Maine South coach Brian Lorenz said. "It is Illinois weather and we are playing high school baseball. We got a huge hit from Schau in the first inning and we made some plays after that."
Lorenz' Hawks came out ready to play.
Andrew Randazzo singled and Brady Maques walked. After Schau's pop foul eluded the defense, Schau made the Knights pay when he drilled a liner to right center for a double, scoring a pair of runs. Schau then scored on an error to make it 3-0.
Prospect was able to get a run back on an RBI single by David Jenkins, scoring Peyton Burgh, who was hit by a pitch. But Hawks starter Drew Koenen settled in for the next three innings.
"It felt pretty good out there," said Koenen, who would strike out six and allow one more run after that.
"It was a little chilly but I started attacking the zone. I felt pretty good until the fourth inning. But Schau came in and cleaned it up so it was a good day."
Maine South gave Koenen some extra help when they scored two runs in the second.
Kermin Orucevic had an RBI single scoring Arran Barliant, who had reached on an error. After Orucevic stole second, Randazzo drove him home with his second hit of the game to make it 5-1.
The Hawks added an extra run in the fourth to make it 6-1.
Ben Labutka was hit by a pitch in the fourth. Courtesy runner Liam Maloney would then scored on a wild pitch.
Prospect (1-1) tried to mount a comeback in its half of the inning. Kyle Odeshoo scored on a bases loaded hit batter. But Schau came on to get a strikeout and groundout to end the threat.
Eliot Higgins' RBI sacrifice fly to right scored a sliding Schau to make it 7-2.
Prospect coach Russ Giusti, who guided his team to the Class 4A sectionals last year, said playing Monday in the cold was important for the growth of his team.
"We got to see some things," Giusti said. "With weather like this in both sides, you got some things that you look through in normal circumstances. We did not execute some plays and that kind of opened up the game in that one inning."