Roberts' move pays dividends for Benet

Sixty feet and six inches of distance completely changed Bryan Roberts' high school baseball career.

Competing on varsity for Benet as a sophomore two years ago, Roberts was regarded among the top players in his class as a catcher.

As a junior Roberts caught several games but then moved exclusively to the mound near midseason when Benet became short-handed with its pitching staff.

The hard-throwing right-hander immediately proved effective. He finished with 7 wins and 88 strikeouts, among area leaders in both categories, and committed to play at the University of Illinois.

His senior season Roberts is picking up right where he left off a year ago. With Mike Vanchieri and transfer Matt O'Rourke ably handling the catching duties, Roberts can keep his focus solely on the mound.

"Not catching has really helped him stay fresh," said Redwings coach Jeff Bonebrake. "He's just been unbelievable this season."

Poor weather has limited the number of times Roberts has pitched, but he was brilliant in his first four outings, starting with a 10-strikeout effort in 4 innings against Downers Grove North.

Against Batavia he entered the game in relief with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth inning. He struck out the side and then preserved the win in the seventh inning.

While Roberts and the Redwings lost to New Trier 3-2 on April 5, he still proved dominant by striking out 15.

Monday in the Redwings' East Suburban Catholic Conference opener against St. Joseph, Roberts improved to 2-1 after 6 innings of work in which he struck out 14 and allowed a hit and a walk.

As good as he's been as a pitcher, though, Bonebrake said professional scouts still project him as a catcher.

Just don't expect to see him behind the plate for the Redwings this season -- he's become too valuable on the mound.

"We always knew he was going to have special ability off the mound," Bonebrake said. "Now he's really showing it."

Time flies: Glenbard North just endured an agonizing three-week losing streak.

Well, not really.

Technically, yes, it did take the Panthers three weeks to claim their first win of the season. But in those three weeks, they were only able to play three games.

While Glenbard North did lose all three matchups, it's hard to fault a team when it's only able to play once a week.

"Our only slump is we haven't been able to play," said Panthers coach Mike Franzen. "There's been no continuity to what we've been doing."

After losing to Glenbard South on March 20, the Panthers went 16 days without a game. Last week they were able to get in an entire three-game DuPage Valley Conference series against Naperville Central, winning the middle game for their first victory of the season. The Panthers picked up their second DVC win Monday against Wheaton Warrenville South.

Franzen is hopeful a long string of games will give his team some momentum and bring the players back to the level they played at when the Panthers advanced to the Elite Eight of last summer's state tournament.

"We have kids we still haven't had a chance to look at yet," Franzen said. "We need to be out on the field playing games. There's no way we can duplicate that in a practice situation."

Young school: In 27 years as Naperville Central's head coach, Bill Seiple says he's never had a team as young as this season's group.

Surprisingly, so far the growing pains have been few and far between.

Three sophomores and three juniors typically start for the Redhawks, who took two out of three from Glenbard North in the season's first DuPage Valley Conference series last week and won Monday's series opener against West Chicago.

In addition to senior Andy Pucher, three other top pitchers are non-seniors, including junior Pat Kaminska, a third-year varsity member.

Even with all that youth the Redhawks burst out of the gate with a 7-3 record following Monday's win.

"We'll have our ups and downs, but we've been pretty solid so far," Seiple said.

An integral part of the youth movement is three sophomore starters -- shortstop and pitcher Marc Mantucca, first baseman Nick Linne and second baseman Matt Soria.

Any success the Redhawks have this season will depend greatly on how quickly that trio develops. According to Seiple, so far so good. Mantucca pitched Monday's win to improve to 2-0.

"They've been terrific," he said. "I think they're a month ahead of where we thought they were going to be. And as they get more comfortable, the game's going to slow down even more."