Fenwick 4
Lake Zurich 3
Dave Hogan had a pretty good week of baseball. Last week, the Fenwick head coach skippered his team to its fourth straight victory on the young season and notched his 600th-career win in 29 years at the Catholic school.
“When you are having a good time and enjoy what you do, 600 wins can go very quick,” said Hogan, who will be inducted into the Chicago Catholic League Hall of Fame in May. “You never go into coaching with that goal in mind, winning 600 games. And, of course, I’d trade in a few of those wins for a state championship.
“In order to achieve 600 wins you have to have a solid program with very good players, and I’ve been lucky enough with that,” added Hogan (601-297), who said he has no plans of retiring any time soon. Hogan has led the Friars to 11 regional titles and last summer to second place in the Illinois High Baseball Coaches Association Summer League Tournament.
The Friars handed their coach his 600th with a 9-4 victory over Kenwood on Friday, then turned around and put Hogan over the mark by edging Lake Zurich 4-3 at the Dominican Priory on Saturday.
Mike Falsetti drove in the game-winner in the bottom of the seventh inning against Lake Zurich. Tied 3-3 with one out, Mike Stephany tripled. Reid Rooney was intentionally walked, but Lake Zurich didn’t do the same to Falsetti, who drove a single down the right field line for the win. Falsetti finished 3-for-4 on the day with two RBIs.
Joe Sweeney earned the win on the mound, allowing three runs-one earned-on four hits in seven innings. Sweeney struckout five.
Hogan employed five pitchers in the win over Kenwood, a tactic that led to a combined perfect game in Fenwick’s 15-0 shutout of Holy Trinity earlier in the week. Steve Puiszis went 2-for-3 with a triple and three RBIs to lead the Friars past Kenwood.
Cam Verbeke, John Hurley, Sweeney, Myles O’Donnell and Mike Lemar combined to toss the perfect game over Holy Trinity. Brian Moore led at the plate by going 3-for-3 with an RBI. Stephany finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs, as did Falsetti.
The game at Maine South April 2 was rained out with Fenwick up 3-0.
The Friars take on Ridgewood in a makeup game on Friday (4 p.m.), before hosting Mt. Carmel at the Priory on Saturday. The time of the Saturday game has been changed to 2:30 p.m. due to state testing.
