Hampshire, Burlington Central baseball win regional titles: Saturday’s Northwest Herald sports roundup

Baseball

Hampshire 7, Hononegah 4: At Machesney Park, the top-seeded Whip-Purs (28-8) captured the Class 4A Harlem Regional title, getting a home run and two RBIs from Shane Pfeiffer, to beat the fourth-seeded Indians. Calen Scheider had a triple and two RBIs, while Wilson Wemhoff (two runs) and Nate Kolder each knocked in a run. Jack Perrone had a double and run scored.

Hampshire has won two regional titles in a row.

Scheider pitched six innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits with four strikeouts. Wemhoff tossed a scoreless seventh with a strikeout.

Hampshire advances to face second-seeded Barrington in a McHenry Sectional semifinal at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Burlington Central 7, Rockford Boylan 2: At Burlington, the top-seeded Rockets trailed 2-0 early but exploded for six runs in the bottom of the third to take a 6-2 lead against the fourth-seeded Titans en route to winning the Class 3A Burlington Central Regional title.

Central (20-16), which has won three regional titles in a row, will meet second-seeded Benet in a Kaneland Sectional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Liam Schultz was 3 for 4 with a home run and three RBIs, Zane Pollack was 2 for 4 with two RBIs, and Nico Sherry also drove in a run. Thomas Koertgen, batting ninth, scored twice. Tyler Kotwica earned the win, allowing two runs on three hits with seven strikeouts. Gavin Bramer threw two scoreless innings in relief.

Barrington 3, Dundee-Crown 2: At Fox Lake, the fifth-seeded Chargers’ (15-21) upset bid fell just short in the Class 4A Grant Regional championship. D-C and No. 2 Barrington were scoreless until the seventh.

The Chargers scored two runs in the top half: one on an error with one out and the second on a Ryan Pierce single with two outs. But the Broncos walked it off in the bottom half with two outs, getting a two-run triple followed by a Joey Tomczak game-winning hit.

Hayden DeMarsh started for D-C and pitched 6⅔ innings, allowing three runs on six hits. He walked two and struck out two. DeMarsh also led the team with two hits. D-C was trying to win its first regional title since 2013.

Boys tennis

IHSA Class 1A State Meet: At Palatine, Prairie Ridge’s Tim Jones and Cole Palese went 5-2 and placed sixth for the Northwest Herald area’s best finish, and the Wolves finished runner-up as a team.

Prairie Ridge’s Jacob Kim was also playing on the final day of the three-day tournament, bowing out in the consolation semifinals.

The team championship went to Chicago University with 28 points. Prairie Ridge was second with 18 points, followed by Dunlap and Alleman with 17 each.

Jones and Palese had to come back to win their consolation semifinal against St. Anthony’s Manaye Mossman and Joey Trupiano 2-6, 7-5, (11-9) just to advance to Saturday’s fifth-place match. It was the second match in a row the Wolves’ duo won after losing the first set.

Jones and Palese then fell to Dunlap’s Alex Fei and Ethan McCraven 6-2, 7-5 in the fifth-place match to place sixth.

Kim finished his tournament run at 4-2, losing his only match Saturday to St. Francis’ Umar Bajwa 6-2, 6-4, in the consolation semifinals. Kim started the tournament 3-0 before losing his quarterfinal match.