Baseball: Palatine splits series with Barrington, stays game back of Fremd in MSL West race
It lined up to be a pitcher’s duel between Palatine’s Toby Peterson, who is headed to play at Kentucky next year, and Barrington freshman sensation Jack Postma.
But walks, wild pitches and errors got in the way Wednesday as the Pirates held off Barrington 9-7 in Palatine in a game that lasted nearly three hours.
The win gave Palatine (13-6, 4-1) a split with Barrington (11-5-1, 4-1) for the season. It also left both teams a game behind Fremd in the MSL West race after the Vikings beat Conant 2-1.
“After Monday’s loss to Barrington, at the end of the day, if you split, it’s like you didn’t even play,” said Palatine coach Brent Carroll, whose team will have a pair of games with Fremd next week.
“We will have a tough one next week.”
The teams each scored a run through the first two and a half innings before the game lost its momentum.
Palatine’s run came when Joe Riley doubled home Carter Monroe who had singled. The Broncos tallied as Julian Ashley-Friedman singled, stole second and scored on Jackson Cavaliero’s single.
Errors then began Barrington’s downfall. The Broncos made three of them in the third inning that led to three Palatine runs. That, along with an RBI double by Adrian Santamaria and an RBI single by David Oddo, put the Pirates up 4-1.
Palatine then used a walk, an error and a pair of wild pitches in the next inning. That enabled the Pirates to up their lead to 8-1 as they appeared to be in complete control.
That feeling went away in Barrington’s next at-bat.
After a fly out, the Broncos had three consecutive walks to load the bases. After a pitching change, Jack Swarbrick followed with a two-run single. Zack Ostergaaurd picked up an infield single and a run scored on a throwing error. Peter Ensig’s sacrifice fly cut the lead to 8-6.
Palatine got back one of those runs. Courtesy runner Cooper Houston, who was running for Ben Ratajczak, who had singled, scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 9-6.
“I m just trying to stay through the ball and get a barrel on it,” said Ratajczak, who had three hits in the game. “It worked out well for me today.”
Barrington cut the lead to 9-7 in the top of the sixth. Ashely-Friedman, who had been hit by a pitch and advanced to third on Cavaliero’s second hit of the game, scored on the front end of a double steal.
Barrington then made a huge push to tie the game in the top of the seventh.
After two outs, Ensign successfully dove into first base on a grounder to just beat the throw. With two strikes, Joey Tomczak doubled to left to put runners on second and third. Palatine pitcher Ian Sherman, who came on in relief for Peterson, got an infield pop out to end the game.
“I just came in and tried to throw strikes and get it done,” Sherman said. “I just battled against adversity and counted on my defense to help me.”
Carroll, who is in his first year as head coach, said his team continues to challenge his nerves.
“We make every game interesting,” Carroll said. “You try to have patience with them. But we keep finding a way.”
Barrington coach Pat Wire said his team never quit.
“We got back into the game and that was hopeful,” Wire said. “The was no die in my team and we really like that. We are young and we are going to make mistakes like that. I was really proud on how we held our composure after that.”