Vernon Hills takes a hands-on approach to diamond cleanliness

Call it a seed-y situation.

At most high schools, baseball players are required to do "chores" after home games in order to keep their fields and surrounding facilities nice and neat.

They rake, they sweep, they water the dirt, they water the grass, you name it. They work just about as hard after games as they do during.

Except at Vernon Hills, you might think.

Last year, when the school replaced the entire infield, including the dirt around the base paths, with synthetic turf to alleviate problems with the drainage system, the Cougars' post-game chore list was instantly slashed.

No more raking, no more watering down the dirt.

Freedom! Right?

Wrong.

Now, the Cougars are on "Seed Patrol."

"We've just traded one set of chores for another," Vernon Hills coach Jay Czarnecki said. "Our kids never want to hear me say, 'Go get a cup!'"

That's the Cougars' cue to prepare to clean up sunflower seeds, the snack of choice for many baseball players while they hang out in the dugout during games. The cup is their dustpan.

Because Czarnecki doesn't want all of the shells from sunflower seeds that are eaten during games to get imbedded in the school's nice, new turf, he asks that his players pick up every last seed and shell before they leave the field for the day.

By hand.

"My guys hate picking up those seeds," Czarnecki said with laugh. "But it's got to be done.

"We don't even allow our guys to have seeds inside our dugout anymore, just so that we won't have to worry about a mess there. The visiting dugout is bad enough. After one of our games (recently), there were like 1,000 seeds in the visiting dugout and it took so long to clean it up. We were still finding seeds for like two days."

The tediousness aside, Czarnecki is determined to keep the field, which was funded by various methods, including fund-raising and donations, in tip-top shape.

He says it's been such a blessing for the program, and he wants nothing to compromise its performance or longevity.

"We had such issues before with the drainage of our field," Czarnecki said. "We went from a program that was almost always practicing on the blacktop or off site because even the slightest amount of rain would wash out our field for days, to a program that can use its field pretty much whenever.

"Pretty much the only thing that stops us from getting on our field is lightning."

Czarnecki says it's surreal having such a reliable field. In the past, his team was forced occasionally to play home games on the road due to poor field conditions. Now, it's the other way around.

"We were supposed to play a game out at Crystal Lake Central recently, but their field wasn't ready," Czarnecki said. "But ours was and so we got to move the game here and stay at home and play. That was so nice."

Nice, but not perfect.

Czarnecki says that even his assistant coaches are giving him some good-natured ribbing about his "No sunflower seed" policy in the home dugout.

"One of them said to me the other day that he is starting to really like road games," Czarnecki said. "And I said, 'Why?' And he said. 'Because I can chew seeds on the road.'"

Side show: With two sophomores and a freshman in the lineup at times, it's no surprise that Vernon Hills often shows the inconsistencies of a young team.

"With any young team, you're going to have your good games, your average games and your not-so-good games," Vernon Hills coach Jay Czarnecki said. "We have the potential to be a good team, but consistency has been our problem."

With a few exceptions.

Cesar Gallegos has been Mr. Consistency for the Cougars by consistently throwing off opposing batters with his unique pitching form.

Gallegos is one of those rare side-arm/submarine pitchers who may look a little funny in his delivery, but is, frankly, no laughing matter when it comes to getting the job done.

Gallegos is 3-1 and has also pitched some tough innings in relief for the Cougars in which he's gotten a no-decision.

"Cesar has done a great job for us this season," Czarnecki said. "He's pitched in some big games for us. He helped us beat Libertyville and we put him in at the end of our game against Grant and he finished out.

"He throws strikes and he forces batters to swing. But the best thing about him is that he's got a different look with his delivery and it's tough for hitters to get used to it."

Czarnecki says Gallegos has always been more of a sidearm thrower, but upon the suggestion of pitching coach Marshall Erickson, Gallegos took his delivery a step further and is now using a more submarine technique that is basically underhanded in nature.

"At times last year, Cesar struggled with his control, but we've found something (submarine style) that he can really control," Czarnecki said. "He was sidearm in nature anyway, so (Erickson) just told him 'Why don't you just drop down a little further?' And Cesar has had success at it. Hitters never seem to know where the ball is going to come from."

Submarine pitching has also been an unknown for Czarnecki. He's never had a player use it until now.

But with Gallegos' success, Czarnecki is hoping to find other side-arm and submarine pitchers.

"If a kid is effective pitching (traditionally), we certainly wouldn't change him," Czarnecki said. "But if he's kind of naturally side-arming it anyway, maybe we'd look at helping him become more of a submarine guy.

"Having someone different like that really helps your pitching staff."

Short stoppage: Rest is what the doctor is ordering for Vernon Hills veteran shortstop Chris Argianas. He may be out for a couple of weeks, maybe longer.

Argianas is experiencing shoulder soreness but isn't sure exactly why. When he went for an exam, the doctor told him that his soreness likely wasn't from overuse, but rather from a sudden jarring movement of the shoulder that may have caused only minor soreness at the time.

That soreness tends to get progressively worse.

"The only thing that Chris can think of is that when we were on Spring Break, we were playing at Rent One Park and he was running after a pop up and he kind of flipped over the wall," Vernon Hills coach Jay Czarnecki said. "At the time, it didn't really hurt, but he said it did feel a little different. That could be what happened to cause the soreness he's experiencing now."

Argianas isn't happy about having to sit out.

"It turns out, his shoulder has been sore for awhile, but I don't think he wanted to say anything because he's a competitor and he just wanted to tough it out," Czarnecki said. "We're just hoping with this rest, he'll start to feel better and he'll be ready to come back for the playoffs."

Lost and found: Before the season even began, Stevenson lost pitching.

Injuries and other circumstances left the Patriots without three of their projected starters.

But already, Stevenson has found its way on the mound, thanks to other pitchers who have taken advantage of the opportunity and turned out to be pleasant surprises.

It's a big reason the Patriots are 18-1.

"If someone would have told me we'd be 18-1 at this point in spite of losing all the pitching we did prior to the season, I wouldn't have believed him, not even close, not with all the question marks we had on the mound," Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca said. "But our players have really stepped up, and some of it has really been a pleasant surprise."

Mazzuca pointed specifically to junior Blake Fiedelman, who pitched well in relief in victories over Mundelein and Libertyville.

"The underclass coaches have always spoke well of him, but he was still quite an unknown going into the season and I wasn't really anticipating using him in all the (clutch) situations we've used him in.

"But Blake has been great for us. He likes being in tough situations and he's emerged as someone I now go to when the game is on the line."

The Patriots have also gotten solid pitching out of newly crowned ace Tyler Radtke, a junior, as well as Kyle Ruchim, Merrick McGrady and Greg Kingery.

"Merrick and Greg kind of had to wait for their turn because there were so many good seniors in front of them last year," Mazzuca said. "But both of them have stepped up and pitched in big games for us this year. And Kyle has also gotten some big wins.

"And Tyler has really emerged for us as that No. 1. He's a tough pitcher for hitters to face. He's pitched really well for us all year."

Tough stretch: If it hasn't been one thing, it's been another for Libertyville during a rough three-game losing streak.

The Wildcats, still one of the best teams in the North Suburban Lake Division, lost back-to-back games to Vernon Hills and Warren in the last week because of an inordinate amount of errors.

"I think we had 3 or 4 errors in each game," Libertyville coach Jim Schurr said earlier this week. "When you go the first three-fourths of your games playing virtually flawless, it's enough to make you scratch your head. It's hard to take.

"They've been physical errors, guys taking their eyes off the ball, that kind of thing. But our approach is not to dwell on it too much. We just need to keep working on our technique and form and hope it works itself out."

Those hopes (and prayers, too, maybe) were answered on Wednesday when Libertyville hosted Warren in the second of back-to-back games against the Blue Devils. The Wildcats made just 1 error on the day.

However, this time something else made getting a victory tough. Well, two things, really.

The Wildcats' pitching staff got banged up, giving up a total of 16 hits to Warren. Plus, Libertyville failed to generate much offense down the stretch and Warren eased away with a 12-5 win.

So many choices: When Wauconda coach Bill Sliker looks into the cupboard for pitching and catching, it pretty much is never in need of re-stocking.

The Bulldogs happen to have unusually good depth this season at both positions, to the point where Sliker could pick names out of a hat to fill starting spots.

He says four of his pitchers, Tim Matesi, Danny Tanzillo, Jeremy Wagner and Erik Maki are all still making the case for themselves as aces.

Meanwhile, Jeff Jackson and Kevin Fessler are both so good at catcher that Sliker has them on a regular rotation behind the plate.

"Our pitchers are so similar in a lot of important ways," Sliker said. "Velocity-wise, they're close, their breaking pitches are all close. They all compete hard.

"Whenever we need quality innings, we feel comfortable with any of those four guys. Whenever you can say that about four guys, you're pretty lucky."

Ditto for being able to say that about more than one catcher.

And, ironically, not only are Jackson and Fessler sharing playing time behind the plate, they also share the distinction of being two of the best hitters on the team. They bat third and fourth in the lineup, respectively."

"Jeff is at probably around .400 and Kevin is at like .350," Sliker said. "They're both such complete players. Whoever isn't catching, he goes and plays in the field, and we've had Jeff and Kevin in the outfield, at first base, at third. It's just a tribute to them and how athletic they are. They've both done a little bit of everything for us this year."