Whips looking forward to finally having a home

Hampshire was the area's nomadic baseball tribe for the past several years, but the Whip-Purs have a new, permanent home diamond and reason to believe their inaugural season on it will be a successful one.

Hampshire didn't have a varsity baseball field at the old high school, so the Whips played at a local park district field for years. However, extensive flooding at that park forced them to move home games last season to a field located in a nearby subdivision in Pingree Grove. The Whip-Purs played only 8 of their 32 games at "home" yet still went 18-14 and reached a Class 2A supersectional, the best postseason finish in school history.

"We're not used to dugouts at our home field, which is great to have with all the cold and wind lately," 11th-year Hampshire coach Steve Ream said. "The outfield is all sod, though it's not green yet. It's a beautiful field. Dugouts, the scoreboard - these are things that we never had and we really appreciate that."

Hampshire fans should appreciate the fact seven of nine position players return along with last year's top three pitchers. Juniors Ryan Burke and Kent Larson join senior Erik Chellberg to form a solid pitching rotation.

Burke (6-2) posted an ERA of 187 in 481/3 innings with 43 strikeouts and 11 walks. He allowed no home runs and earned victories in regional and sectional title games. Larson pitched in a supersectional and finished with an ERA of 1.86 in 631/3 innings. He allowed only 11 extra-basehits to the 269 batters he faced. Chellberg returns as the No. 3 starter, and hard-throwing junior Ryan Meyer will round out the starting rotation.

"We're really hoping pitching will be our strong suit because that's what keeps you in games more than anything else," Ream said. "Then if we can get a little hitting in and play some defense we'll be in some games."

The Whips return experienced talent at most positions: left fielder James Goebbert, third baseman Zach Crinigan, Burke at shortstop, first baseman Max Kuefner, catcher Tyler Bentley, right fielder Joe Moore and Bo Price, who played multiple positions and was named honorable mention all-Big Northern East.

Despite the wealth of experience coming back, Ream speaks of the Big Northern East race with guarded optimism.

"We've never been a favorite," he said. "Richmond is always tough, Burlington has (Austin) Jarvis back and he's an excellent catcher and they have some pitching back. I'd say us, Richmond-Burton and Burlington would be considered the top three, but we've lost to other teams in the conference.

"I'm more confident than we were going into last year, sure. Last year I thought we had a good team and we had trouble convincing the kids. Then you start worrying about the kids being overconfident to the point they think they can just walk out on the field (and win). We've been real careful about getting on them to work hard and telling them not to expect anything to be handed to us. But it's going to be tougher. Class 3A is a tougher road, which is why we're emphasizing just playing them one game at a time and making sure we're playing our best baseball at the end of the year. Whatever the record is it is."

Burlington Central: The Rockets will field a young team overall but a talented one, led by returning all-area catcher Austin Jarvis (. 436, 5 doubles, 6 HR). Jarvis, a junior, threw out 17 of 24 would-be basestealers last season.

Also returning are junior shortstop Zack Romondo and first baseman Dave Hartwell, the latter of whom will play the outfield this season when he isn't pitching.

Senior Bill Rodriguez was Central's top pitcher until a bone chip in his femur sidelined him. A now-healthy Rodriguez and Hartwell will head the pitching rotation and be joined by a pair of promising sophomores - Sam Klein and Nick Hahn. Hahn will take the hill today against Batavia.

Freshman Tanner Scott is a natural catcher, but the position is spoken for by Jarvis, so Scott will play left field, designated hitter and catch the occasional game.

"We're really young with two sophomores and a freshman on the roster, but I think we're really talented also," fourth-year Central coach Kyle Nelson said. "It just depends on how much we learn between now and the end of the season. I think we've made some really good strides. If we can get some hitting and power from the middle of the order with those juniors, sophomores and freshman, we should be OK."

St. Edward: This is the year coach Gene Belmonte and the Green Wave have awaited for three seasons.

Belmonte, a longtime St. Edward assistant, took over the program three years ago after a rash of transfers related to problems in other sports left the roster bereft of experienced players. Belmonte started nearly all freshmen and sophomores the last two seasons and the Wave took its lumps in the unforgiving Suburban Catholic Conference as a result (5-9 last season).

Now it's the Green Wave's turn to inflict some damage.

"Having expectations at all is unusual for us, but the reason for our optimism is that we're returning seven of our nine position players," Belmonte said. "And for the first time in years we have an all-senior, all-junior team with maturity and experience. We're ready to take a step forward."

Senior pitcher Riley Coleman (82 strikeouts) is a four-year varsity performer who will lead the rotation with fellow seniors Mike Kondrath and Jim Frazcek.

The Wave scalded the baseball in the last half of last season, when they finished 11-17 overall. Junior middle infielder D.J. Madzy will set the table for a heart of the order that includes Jordan Torres, Anthony Bauer, Kondrath, David Hoebbel and Coleman. Is it enough to topple the league powers, which this year should include Marmion and Marian Central?

"Our goal is to win the conference," Belmonte said. "We think we can stack up with (Marmion and Marian Central) because we played them both tough last year. I think we'll see improvement throughout the league and Driscoll and Montini are always going to be there. We'll have people knocking each other off, so this could very well be our year to win the conference, which was pretty much unthinkable in the past for us. But we think we have a legitimate shot to do it."

Westminster Christian: The Warriors embark on a new era after graduating all-area pitcher Ben Palmer (Dallas Baptist), all-area catcher Carter Ward and all-area shortstop Cory Hodge, among many talented seniors who put the program on the map.

However, some experienced players return from last year's team that went 25-10 and lost in the Class 1A sectional finals to Immaculate Conception. Senior Brandon Siewert (8-2, 3.39 ERA, 632/3 IP), a 2008 all-area pick, will top the rotation along with senior Steve Berglund. They'll be joined by two up-and-coming freshmen - Ryan Perez and Kevin Elder.

Chadd Schroy returns at a corner outfield spot, Zach Holmer moves to shortstop to replace Hodge, and Jake Moeller and Berglund will play in the outfield. With many of their power hitters now graduated, the Warriors will take on a different persona in 2009.

"This team doesn't have near the athleticism that we had before, but we're going to do what we can to stay in games," eighth-year Westminster Christian coach Jeff Moeller said. "Pitching-wise we don't have a Ben Palmer, but we have depth, and we're probably deeper overall than we were last year. We just don't have an absolute shut-down guy, so we'll have to play good defense, small ball and pitch the ball a little bit.

"Our goal is always to go deep in playoffs, which is why we play the competition we do to get ready. We're trying to instill in our kids to be a scrappy, hustling team that never gives up. That's our focus. We'll do what we always do - work the fundamentals and play basic baseball."