LZ's American Legion Baseball Team Posts No Wins

After winning three straight games a week earlier, Lake Zurich Post 964 went 0-2 last week, losing a game against Gurnee they might have won 6-3 on Wednesday before being routed 10-1 by Libertyville on Thursday.

“Not a good game,” said assistant coach Ron Duprey after the loss to Libertyville. “We just didn’t get it done.”

After pounding out nine hits in a 7-2 win over Wauconda on June 15 and 10 hits in a 9-6 victory against Grayslake the next night, LZ’s bats went relatively quiet last week, managing only four hits against Gurnee and just two against Libertyville.

In the contest against Gurnee, Jeremy Reusch collected two of the team’s four hits, going 2-for-3 with a single and a solo homer. Pitcher Mike Irgang went the distance, striking out an impressive 13 and walking four. While he yielded six runs, only three were earned, and a pair of errors by Ian Ryan and another by Collin Roto proved costly. Subtract the three unearned runs and the teams would have been battling in a 3-3 tie.

Thursday’s contest wasn’t nearly as close. Visiting Libertyville jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning when leadoff hitter Brian Brennan stroked a single to short. After center fielder Justin Guarnaccio walked, third baseman Blake Busca singled to load the bases.

Cleanup hitter and DH Nat Vogt then singled, driving in Brennan. No. 5 hitter Kyle Cibrario made the first out of the inning when he fouled out along the first base line, as second baseman Kyle Sanders made a nice grab, skidding past first baseman Ben Gullo on his knees as he caught the ball.

Second baseman Ryan McGuire followed with a sacrifice fly to deep center, driving in Guarnaccio. Pitcher Brian Wiest then threw a wild pitch with left fielder Kevin McQuillan at the plate, allowing Vogt to cross home with the third run of the inning.

"We knew going into this weekend with the Barrington tournament and four games to cover pitching, we needed Brian to pitch as he did in his last outing,” said Post 964 coach Dan Grant, referring to Wiest's solid performance against Grayslake on June 16, when he went 6 2/3 innings. "But he struggled getting a rhythm, and Libertyville is too good a program and they took advantage.”

Post 964 scored its lone run of the game in its half of the third inning. After Gullo led off with a ground out to third, Mark Dorfman pounded a triple. He came in to score moments later when third baseman Mike Schnur hit a sacrifice fly to deep center.

Libertyville answered right back with two more runs in the third. Vogt led off with a double to right, and first baseman Cibrario followed with a two-run homer.

Lake Zurich’s only other glimmer of a scoring opportunity came in their half of the third. After Mitch Tuthill lined a one-out single to right, Sanders reached on a fielder’s choice. Tuthill ended up being safe at second when shortstop Brian Brennan’s flip to second baseman Ryan McGuire went into short center for an error. The rally was stymied, however, when catcher Jeremy Reusch hit into a 4-3-4 double play to end the inning.

Wiest settled down in the fourth, the only inning that he didn’t yield a run or a hit, but was knocked out in the fifth when Libertyville erupted for another five runs. The inning began when McGuire launched a towering triple to deep left-center. After McQuillan stroked a single past Sanders at second to drive in McGuire, Ian Ryan relieved Wiest.

Ryan induced catcher Mike Coutre to hit a grounder to Sanders at second, who made a nice play throwing him out from his knees. After beaning Brennan, Ryan whiffed Guarnaccio for the second out of the inning. But after Busca walked to pack the sacks, Vogt tripled for three more runs.

In spite of giving up the big triple to Vogt, Ryan looked in command of his pitches and was unafraid to challenge the hitters that he faced.

"We did discover a kid, an outfielder off the bench, Ian Ryan, who came in and after settling down pitched an encouraging last inning that I think will help this weekend and beyond out of the bullpen,” said Grant.

After Lake Zurich went down in order in their half of the fifth, the game was called because of darkness, as stormy skies on one of the longest days of the year caused an early twilight.

Post Script: Lake Zurich was outscored 16-4 by Gurnee and Libertyville in its two games this past week. The team’s record now stands at 6-5. Outfielder Mitch Tuthill leads the team with a .435 batting average, and Tanner Kiser is second, hitting .423. Catcher Jeremy Reusch is third at .370 and Mike Schnur is fourth, hitting .350. Kyle Sanders leads the team with three triples, and Mark Dorfman and Jeremy Reusch have each homered once.

Libertyville's starting pitcher Jason Buss was impressive, pitching all five innings while giving up just one run and just two hits. He struck out four and walked one.

Next Up: At the conclusion of this weekend’s four-game tournament in Barrington, Lake Zurich plays four games this week. On Monday, they will host Lake Forest before playing three consecutive away games. On Tuesday, they will play in Zion, on Wednesday they will be in Mundelein, and on Thursday they travel to Deerfield. All games are scheduled to start at 6 p.m.