Lake Forest gives, and Carmel takes

Loose play in field turns tie game into rout

GURNEE -- It must be nice, in a sudden-death situation, to run out a No. 3 pitcher who is undefeated on the year.

That's the luxury available to Carmel Corsairs head coach Chuck Gandolfi, who threw junior Jeff Moree at Lake Forest on Wednesday in the semifinals of the IHSA Class 4A Warren Regional baseball tournament and came away with a 12-2, five-inning, mercy-rule victory.

Moree is now 7-0 on the season and the Corsairs await the winner of the other semifinal in the IHSA Class 4A tournament game today between Warren and Libertyville. The regional championship game will be played Saturday.

"I knew they were good hitters," said Moree after the game, "so I had to bring my best stuff. My slider had a nasty bite to it today."

Moree fanned 8 Scouts (11-21) in 5 innings, yielding 7 hits.

Carmel (29-5) broke open a 2-2 contest in the third inning, scoring 4 runs on 2 hits, 2 walks and 2 costly Lake Forest errors.

"They helped us in the one inning," said Gandolfi, "you know a dropped pop-up keeps the guy alive, and then the ground ball, you never know what happens."

Gandolfi was referring to a two-out, bases-loaded situation with the game tied at 2-2. A foul pop-up was dropped to keep Kevin Hendricks alive, and a subsequent grounder was muffed, plating two and scoring what turned out to be the winning run. Two more runs in that frame made it 6-2.

Lake Forest was in a giving mood in the next inning as well, committing two more errors to go along with a three-run Carmel blast by Hendricks and four other hits. In total, the Scouts had six errors on the day.

Shortstop Bobby Lyne got Carmel out to a 2-0 first-inning lead with a two-run, opposite-field homer to right, but Lake Forest rallied to tie the game with single scores in the second and third innings.

Lyne was 2 for 3 on the day with 2 runs, 2 RBIs and a stolen base. He may be pitching for the Corsairs in the championship game on Saturday, but Gandolfi said that the decision between pitching Lyne or Jordan Sivertsen was yet to be made.