Cardinals hold spots for state semifinalists

Priorities. Priorities.

The Crystal Lake American Legion baseball team was forced to open its season overwhelmingly short-handed after a bulk of its roster apparently had something better to do last weekend.

OK, so that something just happened to be the IHSA state semifinals.

Post 171 probably will cut them some slack this time around.

Without 11 players from Crystal Lake Central and Prairie Ridge, including six projected starters, Crystal Lake went 1-3 at the sixth annual Early Bird Tournament at Elgin's Wing Park.

"We'll be good once we have everyone back," outfielder Gavin Meyer said. "It's harder now without them, but we'll be fine."

Brian Bergantino and Ed Benitez, who didn't even play baseball at Crystal Lake South, did what they could to help out as the Post 171 dropped a double-header to Elmhurst 7-2 and Lake Zurich 8-3 Friday.

Crystal Lake bounced back to pound Plainfield 15-6 Saturday morning, but could not rally enough players to avoid a forfeit in Sunday's tourney finale.

For obvious reasons, Post 171 will welcome its latecomers with open arms as it looks to return to the District 11 Tournament for the second year in a row.

The team finished 33-12 and put together a stunning run out of the losers' bracket to win the McHenry County championship a year ago.

That, along with the success of the Central and Prairie Ridge high school teams, has created some lofty expectations for Bob Bacci's club this summer.

"We want to have some fun and (win) District this time around," Meyer said.

Crystal Lake South products Meyer and Sean Wilson were the only projected starters to suit up for Crystal Lake last weekend.

Meyer surpassed his spring home run total in one game when he hammered two bombs in the loss to Lake Zurich Friday night. He also doubled against Elmhurst and scored a pair of runs in the big win over Plainfield.

"I was just seeing the ball well," Meyer explained.

The speedy leadoff man, who stole 30 bases for the Post 171 last summer, has set his sights on making the all-FVC team next spring after hitting almost .350 for the Gators as a junior.

Wilson, an all-conference pick as a senior for South, went 4-for-11 at the Elgin tourney. The southpaw is expected to join Central grads Gannon Sadzeck (Rose-Hulman), Ryan Pollock and Chad Staudt on the pitching staff.

"We lost a couple of kids due to their age," Wilson said, "but we still have the core part of the team back."

Crystal Lake (1-3) visits McHenry at McHenry High School at 6 p.m. today (Thursday) and will compete in the Northbrook Tournament Friday and Saturday.