Barrington’s Beath catches on at Oakland

Barrington senior catcher Doug Beath misses being a three-sport athlete. But Beath has no regrets about focusing on baseball going into his junior year.

Especially after Beath signed a letter of intent to play Division I baseball at Oakland University in Michigan.

“It’s really always been a goal of mine,” said the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Beath. “I’ve known I wanted to play college baseball since the sixth grade.

“Playing this summer and fall definitely got me some attention with schools.”

Particularly Oakland, which initially saw Beath through the Prep Baseball Report’s fall league. He went to a camp in September and made his decision after also going to camps at Western Michigan and Binghamton (N.Y.).

“I liked the fact (Oakland) is a really good school for academics and the major I want to pursue,” said Beath, who wants to get into secondary education and coaching. “One of the main reasons I chose the school is (head coach John Musachio) is a great guy and knows the game of baseball.”

Musachio grew up in LaGrange and played at Bradley. He was also an assistant coach at Michigan State.

Oakland finished third in last season’s Summit League tournament. Beath, who has a 3.1 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale and scored 25 on the ACT, said he’ll have a chance to play right away as a catcher or outfielder.

“It wasn’t a huge deal for me,” Beath said of signing early, “but I liked that I got it over ahead of time. I can focus on my senior year and have no pressure for the baseball season.”

Stawychny a big hit down south: It didn’t take long for Leyden senior Justin Stawychny to warm up to the thought of playing Division I baseball at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

“Living here, the weather is awful,” Stawychny said of signing with ULM. “The big thing is playing all year round.

“When I went down to the campus it was beautiful and it seems like a great program.”

A pair of stress fractures in his back limited Stawychny to just 6 at-bats last spring for Leyden and cut into his playing time this summer.

But 2 of Stawychny’s 3 hits in the spring were homers and he drew a lot of interest with his play in a tournament for the Downers Grove Longshots. Leyden coach Gary Wolf said Stawychny is one of the best hitters he’s coached.

“Justin can flat-out hit,” ULM coach Jeff Schexnaider said on the school’s website after Stawychny signed. “He can play the outfield or corner infield and he should be a fixture in the middle of the lineup before his time at ULM is finished.”

Stawychny, who plans to study kinesiology, said his back has been fine. He’s been careful to avoid the overuse he said caused his back trouble.

And he hopes better health and a clear frame of mind about his future leads to a powerful spring.

“That was definitely huge,” Stawychny said of signing early. “Taking the stress off for this coming season should be good.”

Stutzman makes choice: Fremd all-area outfielder-pitcher Sean Stutzman committed to Des Moines Area Community College. The left-handed Stutzman was 5-3 with a 3.19 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 64 innings and hit .340 with 7 doubles and 18 RBI for the Mid-Suburban League champions.