Baseball
Zack Geib remembers a pivotal moment when he played 12U baseball with the Crystal Lake Cyclones and his coach, Chuck Ahsmann, taught him grips for various pitches.
WOODSTOCK – Six wrestlers won by pin for Crystal Lake South on Wednesday in a 60-18 non-conference victory against Marian Central.
Colin Lyman has been ahead of the curve for a while, so perhaps it’s fitting that he made his college commitment a year early.
Dave Mitroff and Chuck Lowitzki both dreamed of someday coaching baseball at the college level.
HAMPSHIRE – John Sarna had watched when various head baseball coaching positions came open, including the Jacobs’ job three times during the past 11 years there as an assistant, and passed.
Tom Parisi takes a great deal of pride in not acting his age.
Others might have had inklings earlier, but the very real possibility of playing NCAA Division I baseball started sinking in with Dundee-Crown center fielder Jake Romano a year ago.
Indiana State got one look at Crystal Lake South’s Nick Martin during his high school season.
The Prairie Ridge boys baseball team came up short in its final game of the summer, but coach Glen Pecoraro saw a lot of positives in the team’s summer season.
LISLE – An early two-run cushion was all pitcher Ryan Harris needed to send Prairie Ridge to the semifinals Tuesday at the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association’s Phil Lawler Summer Classic.
LIBERTYVILLE – Nick Samuels knew his seventh inning at-bat would be defined by how well he kept his cool.
First team
Richmond-Burton faced a pivotal point in its baseball season April 30.
Living in such close proximity to Cary-Grove High School carries its benefits for Trojans coach Don Sutherland.
DeKALB – Cary-Grove leadoff man Matt Byrne thought the Trojans had the break they needed when his blooper to left field found some grass.
GRAYSLAKE – Two days after Richmond-Burton’s E.J. Trapino threw a no-hitter in the semifinals of the IHSA Class 3A Grayslake Central Sectional, St. Francis victimized R-B on Saturday in nearly the same manner.
Ray Wojciechowski thinks, maybe, the hours he spent throwing to the pitchback screen in his yard might have started it all.
Dundee-Crown right fielder Scott Nowicke was a busy man Thursday.
DeKALB – Cary-Grove immediately removed any drama from its IHSA Class 4A Sectional baseball game against Dundee-Crown.
GRAYSLAKE – Richmond-Burton pitcher E.J. Trapino felt a little nervous before the start of the biggest playoff game of his high school career Thursday.
Richmond-Burton’s baseball team might be spoiling its coach.
Cary-Grove has a rarity among high school baseball teams in this area or most others.
ROCHELLE – Marian Central was so close to the sectional championship game it could almost hear its startling lineup announced and the national anthem being played.
The baseball season began at Marian Central with optimism and uncertainty.
Dundee-Crown’s baseball team had reason to dream big with five third-year varsity starters returning.
BELVIDERE – Marian Central’s Lincoln Herendeen used last season’s small postseason experience to his advantage Saturday in the Hurricanes’ 6-3 win against Belvidere in the IHSA Class 3A Belvidere Regional final.
HUNTLEY – Huntley had Mike Hazelhurst on the ropes in the final three innings Saturday.
RICHMOND – Casey Williams had himself a day.
McHENRY – Cary-Grove’s baseball team has taken advantage of its opponents’ mistakes in a big way all season.
BYRON – Pressure wasn’t in the vocabulary for the Harvard baseball team this postseason.
HAMPSHIRE – Third-seeded Hampshire’s Shane Hernandez threw a three-hit shutout to lead the Whip-Purs to a 2-0 victory against second-seeded Burlington Central on Friday in an IHSA Class 3A Hampshire Regional semifinal.
HUNTLEY – There is always an element of luck and surprise in sports.
BYRON – Danielle Stralow threw 10 pitches in the first inning to strike out the side.
McHENRY – Prairie Ridge third baseman Adam Enwiya looked at the records of past Wolves baseball teams written on the board by coach Glen Pecoraro.
BYRON – Harvard catcher Brian Koester had no sooner secured the game-ending pop fly when pitcher Collin Nolen sprinted off the mound toward him.
HAMPSHIRE – The weather conditions favored a pitchers’ duel, and the Crystal Lake Central and Marmion baseball teams didn’t disappoint.
HAMPSHIRE – A five-inning, 17-1 semifinal victory at the Class 3A Hampshire Regional has Marengo’s softball team feeling good.
Alden-Hebron senior Cody Eskridge and junior Shane Engelbrecht were selected to the All-Northeastern Conference baseball team, which was announced Tuesday.
HUNTLEY – Brett Kale racked up eight strikeouts in six innings and did not allow a run to Jefferson in Jacobs’ 6-2 IHSA Class 4A Huntley Regional baseball victory Monday.
WOODSTOCK – The words “High Morale, Maximum Effort” were written on the dry-erase board in Woodstock North’s dugout.
Harvard entered its own IHSA Class 2A regional with seven wins and a No. 4 seed, not exactly the résumé of a team that looked like a threat.
GURNEE – McHenry’s No. 1 doubles team, Dave Robinson and Jake Romme, qualified for the IHSA Boys Tennis State Tournament and defeated a pair from Grant, 7-6, 6-0, for third place Saturday at the Gurnee Warren sectional.
HARVARD – Harvard’s fourth-seeded baseball team trailed second-seeded Genoa-Kingston by a run heading into the top of the seventh inning of Saturday’s IHSA Class 2A Harvard Regional final.
DURAND – The Harvard softball team won its second consecutive regional title with a 4-3 win against Durand-Pecatonica in the IHSA Class 2A Regional final Friday.
Athlete of the week
Jon Sawyer is resigning as Dundee-Crown baseball coach after the season and has been hired as a physical education teacher at Grayslake North next year.
McHENRY – McHenry might have played a little tight in its loss to Prairie Ridge on Tuesday, so Warriors coach Brian Rockweiler tried to foster a different pregame atmosphere Wednesday.
CRYSTAL LAKE – It’s been 12 years since McHenry won a Fox Valley Conference baseball title, and Tuesday marked a chance for the Warriors to clinch the title outright.
CARY – With her sixth strikeout Monday, Cary-Grove sophomore pitcher Lindsay Efflandt reached 200 for the season, leading the Trojans to a 3-0 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division victory against Crystal Lake South.
HAMPSHIRE – From the reaction of Richmond-Burton’s players, it looked just like any other victory.
