Trojans should take pride in ’09

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

JOLIET – Don Sutherland’s opening remarks to the news media Saturday afternoon were brief, but they encapsulated all that Cary-Grove’s baseball team needed to say.

“We had a tough weekend,” said Sutherland, whose team lost to O’Fallon, 3-2, on Saturday to finish fourth at the IHSA Class 4A state tournament at Silver Cross Field, “but we had a fantastic season.”

It was a succinct overview, but perhaps the best way to summarize a season in which dreams were realized and magic ran out a little too soon.

The Trojans still enjoyed a season many baseball players never have experienced, and one that many never will.

They did have a tough weekend, losing to New Trier on Friday by the same one-run margin to nix their chances of playing for a state title Saturday. The third-place game against the Panthers did not go well, either, as the normally apt-hitting Trojans faced a pitcher that retired 13 consecutive batters to end the game and allowed only four hits.

Ending the season that way was disappointing.

But the fourth-place medals that hung around the Trojans’ necks Saturday always will be defined by much more than disappointment.

Fortitude and perseverance went into receiving them. The Trojans (32-10) won the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division title while playing in perhaps the state’s most talented baseball conference, routinely facing solid hitters and stingy pitchers to emerge with a 12-3 record.

There was courage behind those medals. Trojans first baseman Kevin Adams endured the unexpected death of his father at the end of April, in the thick of the regular season. While the Trojans lifted Adams’ spirits, they grieved along with him.

There was effort stitched into each thread of the red, white and blue ribbons from which their medals hung. From the first game of the regional through the supersectional, C-G outscored its opponents, 40-11. The Trojans entered the weekend having committed only four postseason errors and having batted .352.

There was precision behind the fourth-place finish. Saturday’s starter, Matt Nelsen, entered the game with an unblemished record as a junior and senior and was 11-0 this season before bowing out of Saturday’s game after a difficult fifth inning. He spent the past three years at C-G relying on catcher Luke Mottashed and on the defense that continued to be steady behind him, stumbling for the first and final time Saturday.

There was grace and class etched into the bronze. Instead of making excuses, C-G’s players and Sutherland credited their opponents’ strong play.

“This was a big accomplishment, not just for us, but for our school,” Mottashed said. “Even though we finished fourth, we’re leaving here with our heads up.”

That is as it should be.

Tough weekend. Fantastic season.

• Maureen Lynch is a sportswriter for the Northwest Herald. Write to her at mlynch@nwherald.com