Baseball: Maine South’s John Forsythe no-hits Niles West

Updated: May 30, 2012 8:38PM

Maine South lefty John Forsythe certainly appears to be saving his best for the latter part of this season.

The senior pitched a no-hitter on Wednesday to lead the Hawks to a 10-0, six-inning victory over Niles West in the Class 4A Evanston Sectional semifinal.

Forsythe, who has committed to pitch at UC-Riverside, improved to 7-2 on the season. Most impressively, he has given up just four hits in his last four starts, which also includes a no-hitter against Glenbrook North at the end of the regular season.

“He’s gotten better as the season has gone on,” Maine South head coach Bill Milano said. “All of his pitches are working. He’s hitting spots and we’re making plays for him. It’s a simple formula, but he’s executed. He’s just done a wonderful job for us.”

Forsythe pitched six innings, striking out six and walking four. His only jam was in the fifth when he walked two with two outs before striking out Niles West’s Trevor Talhami.

“My curve ball was really working,” Forsythe said. “I had control of that, threw it for strikes, especially first pitch. Even when I was down in the count, I threw (the curve) for strikes then too.

“(Getting offensive support is) always big. We came out here saying ‘if we score first, we are going to keep the pressure on them.’ That helped a lot actually.”

The Hawks (32-5) advanced to Saturday’s sectional championship game (11 a.m.) where they will meet the winner of Thursday’s semifinal between New Trier and Oak Park-River Forest.

On Tuesday, Maine South jumped out early on Niles West (26-11), scoring three in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by catcher Jimmy Frankos and a two-run single by first baseman Nick Mitrovich.

Mitrovich knocked in two more on a double in Maine South’s four-run fifth inning, which also included RBI singles by second baseman Jesus Saavedra and designated hitter Frank Perrone.

The game ended early when Mitrovich singled with the bases loaded to drive in the team’s 10th run in the sixth inning.

Mitrovich finished 3-for-4 with five RBIs, left fielder Nick Calabrese went 4-for-4 with a triple, two doubles and three runs scored and Perrone was 2-for-2.

Niles West starter Jason Meger departed after 1.1 innings. Seth Rosenberg pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless relief before giving up runs in the fifth and sixth. Wolves’ star shortstop Kevin Ross (0-for-3) played despite a fractured left thumb suffered on the last day of the regular season.

“Maine South is a good ballclub. They are the best team we’ve played all year,” Niles West had coach Garry Gustafson said. “My hat goes off to them. We haven’t gotten beat like that all year. They had three big innings on us.”

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