IHSA shakes up baseball's postseason assignments

Some Fox Valley area baseball teams have new postseason destinations based on slight shifts in the playoff assignments released by the IHSA last week.

Within the Class 4A Cary-Grove sectional complex, which features preassigned regionals, DeKalb High School will host a regional for the third straight season. However, the title game won't feature a rematch between Fox Valley Conference rivals Dundee-Crown and Huntley, teams that took turns beating each other for the DeKalb regional championship the last two years.

Huntley and D-C still could face each other for a regional title theoretically. If so, it would happen at the Jacobs regional, where both have been assigned along with the host Golden Eagles, Cary-Grove and Barrington.

Larkin returns to DeKalb for the third straight postseason, along with rival Elgin. They join a five-team field that includes the host Barbs, Rockford East and Rockford Jefferson.

The remaining two regional sites within the Cary-Grove sectional are Prairie Ridge and Rockford Boylan.

Crystal Lake South, which finished fifth in the summer state tournament last July, is assigned to Prairie Ridge along with the host Wolves, who are coming off a fourth-place finish in Class 4A last spring. Crystal Lake Central, McHenry and Grant round out the field. PR gained a leg up in seeding on Wednesday when the Wolves defeated CL South 9-6.

South Elgin - the team that defeated Prairie Ridge last June in Joliet for third place in Class 4A - has been assigned to the St. Charles East sectional along with Bartlett and Streamwood. Other regional hosts include Addison Trail, Geneva and Schaumburg.

In Class 3A, Hampshire will host a regional within the Sycamore sectional. The Whip-Purs are joined by rival Burlington Central, Sycamore, Kaneland and Wheaton Academy.

In Class 2A, St. Edward and Westminster Christian will compete in the Aurora Christian regional, joined by the host school, Christian Liberty Academy and Northridge Prep.

In Class 1A, Elgin Academy and the first-year program at Harvest Christian Academy have been assigned to the Elgin Academy regional, which also welcomes Alden-Hebron, Hinckley-Big Rock and Kirkland Hiawatha.

Rohde closed: Many high school baseball coaches leave the closer role undefined, but fourth-year Jacobs coach Jamie Murray prefers to designate a man for the job.

This season, junior Johnny Rohde is that man. And he's doing the job.

"He has a real good fastball that gets up around 90 and that's gotten him some (college) looks," Murray said. "I think it fit him well when we put him in that role over the summer."

Murray said he expects Rohde to be a starting pitcher next season, but the choice to use him as a fireman has worked out perfectly for the Golden Eagles so far. Jacobs is off to a 9-2 start, and Rohde has saved 5 of the 9 wins.

"He's like our very own Mariano Rivera," Ohio University-bound senior Ryan Sargent said Monday after Rohde finished off his 4-1 victory at Palatine.

Rohde's latest save came Thursday when he polished off a 1-0 win at Grayslake Central despite allowing 2 singles in the seventh inning.

"I wasn't used to being a closer at first in the beginning of the year, but now I'm coming in pretty confident," Rohde said. "I like it. I wasn't sure about it at first, but now I've gotten into it."

Rohde has appeared in 9 of Jacobs's 11 games. Through Thursday he had allowed only 2 earned runs on 6 hits and walked 4 in 9 innings for a 1.56 ERA. He has 11 strikeouts and a 1.11 WHIP.

Promising start: Larkin's 11-1, five-inning victory over St. Edward in its season opener on Wednesday bodes well for a team that struggled to score runs a year ago.

In fact, the 11 runs scored against the Green Wave matched Larkin's total offense during a 6-game, 13 day stretch last April when the team went 1-5.

Coach Matt Esterino liked some of the big swings he saw on Opening Day, like senior Dan Lenz's 3-run home run, He was just as pleased by the way the Royals played small ball.

"Danny Lenz had a nice swing there, but the biggest thing is we executed for the most part within our offense, whether it was a hit-and-run or a bunt slash," Esterino said. "We're not going to be able to sit back and knock out 15 hits a game. We have to execute well, try to get the defense moving and put the ball in play. We did that (Wednesday)."

Pitching in: St. Edward senior Jake LaFrenz isn't able to pitch this season as he continues to recover from Tommy John surgery performed last summer, but that isn't stopping the fourth-year varsity player from contributing.

The general time frame for a full recovery from his surgery is 12 to 16 months, but LaFrenz has begun throwing bullpen sessions as part of his rehabilitation program. Meanwhile, the Coastal Carolina recruit is playing first base for the Green Wave (2-2). Through 4 games the left-handed hitter is 2-for-9 with a double and a walk.

"I feel great," LaFrenz said, "but I'm not going to pitch this year. We're going to wait the 12-16 months, whatever it needs. So I'm playing first, every game so far. If I'm not feeling good, I can tell coach and DH. But they're pretty lenient about it and they're willing to help me out with what I need."

LaFrenz and the Green Wave next face Elgin at Wing Park on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Committed: Larkin senior Tanner Gardon is one of the tallest baseball players in the area at 6-feet, 7 inches, which makes him an intimidating presence when he takes the mound.

Such height also comes in handy on the basketball court. Gardon, a starter for Larkin's regional championship basketball team, committed this week to play college basketball at North Central College in Naperville, an NCAA Division-III program.

"I like the campus a lot, the area is great and I really like their coaching staff. I felt like we really connected," Gardon said Wednesday after he went 2-for-3 and drove in a run in the season opener against St. Edward.

"And I think I have the best chance of playing there. They're losing their top three bigs, so I think I can come in and play right away."

Did he have any thoughts of playing baseball collegiately?

"Basketball is my main love," Gardon said. "Baseball, I'm just doing right now. It was the right choice."