Baseball: Mundelein’s Jared Mandel blanks Warren
#4 Thomas Gandolfi, of Mundelein scores the first run for Mundelein in game action vs. Warren.
| Joe Shuman~For Sun-Times Media
Southpaw Jared Mandel scattered three hits over five shutout innings, No. 7 Mundelein played errorless ball and the Mustangs pounded out 10 safeties in a 10-0 blowout of host Warren on Tuesday in a North Suburban Lake baseball game.
Mandel (5-1) fanned six and didn’t walk a better as the winners improved to 17-2 overall and 5-0 in the division.
“We’re playing solid baseball right now. Our pitchers have done a good job throwing strikes. Defensively we’ve been very solid, and offensively we put the ball in play,” said Mundelein coach Todd Parola. “That’s the recipe for success at the high-school level.”
Mundelein threw some major leather in the win, including:
■ A great grab by center fielder Bryan Wiener charging in on a line drive off the bat of Pat Kenney in the first that enabled Mundelein to double Warren’s Adam Glogovsky off first base to end the inning.
■ Nice plays on deep ground balls in the fourth by second baseman Chris Maranto and shortstop Will Farmer.
■ A 1-6-3 double play in the fifth for the first two outs of the inning.
Mandel was appreciative of the defensive effort.
“It motivates me a lot. I feel like I can go out there and just throw the ball,” he said. “I know that if they put the ball in play, I have a good defense behind me, so it’s just not me out there.”
When Mundelein was on offense, it dominated on the bases. Some of the outstanding running play included:
■ Two sacrifice flies.
■ One sacrifice bunt.
■ Runner scored on a wild pitch.
■ Stolen base by Jordan Wiegold.
■ Manufactured a run when Warren made a play on Will Farmer trying to take second base in the top of the fourth. Farmer got caught in a run-down that enabled Torr Randau to score from third.
Mundelein’s now won eight in a row, and Mandel says the winning has his club as fired up as ever.
“It (the winning) makes it a lot of fun. It motivates us to work hard in practice,” he said. “We come out and take BP and work on situations. We just try to get better. That’s the goal, to get better every day, and when everything is working, days like this happen.”
In the other dugout, Warren coach Clint Smothers saw his team fall out of the division race at 1-4.
“They threw strikes and they made the plays,” he said. “That was the game. Their pitcher did a nice job mixing up the speeds and keeping our hitters off-balance.
“We knew coming in this year that we were going to be young,” Smothers added. “We had three returning players and one pitcher who had thrown any innings. We’ve got some work to do.”.
The teams play again Wednesday, this time in Mundelein. Warren is 6-9-1 overall.
© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment