Lake Park looks to sophomores
Lake Park’s baseball team arrived with only 15 players for Friday’s game at Metea Valley.
The Lancers, though, remain high on potential despite being somewhat low in numbers.
“We’re playing with a pretty young and inexperienced team, and a small team,” said Lake Park coach Dan Colucci. “We’re shuffling a couple of people back and forth between sophomores to pitch for us. We may need to bring up more sophomores to pitch for us because we’re so backed up with games.”
While Lake Park leans on a few returning senior starters in Zach Tsiodras, Brandon Boyle and pitcher Kevin Steger, the Lancers also are relying on an abundance of talent from the Class of 2013.
Eric Vatch threw a shutout against Metea Valley, and fellow sophomore Christian Taugner also has been effective. Tommy Spear is contributing behind the plate.
Even though the Lancers need the youngsters to fill out the roster, it’s by no means a desperate situation. As they’ve shown this season, the sophomores are ready to compete at the varsity level.
“I’m excited for the future because we’ve got a real good sophomore team and our freshman team’s really good, too,” Colucci said. “We’re looking at our seniors to step up and we can make something happen down the stretch.”
Growing pains:Based on years of success, Naperville North is not accustomed to struggling. This season, however, has seen its share of ups and downs for the Huskies, who dropped both ends of Saturday#146;s DuPage Valley Conference doubleheader at Naperville Central.#147;It#146;s just a matter of people need to step up, people need to make plays, people need to get hits with two outs and two strikes,#148; said Naperville North coach Carl Hunckler. #147;We haven#146;t seen enough of that.#148;Only four seniors saw action in both games against Naperville Central and the Huskies#146; best hitter and pitcher, Mariano Long, is a junior and returning starter. Regardless of their youth, though, the Huskies aren#146;t willing to use it as an excuse for their inconsistencies.#147;We never, ever would lean on that,#148; Hunckler said. #147;If anything we just need to get tougher mentally and really understand the game of baseball more. We do have some talent, but mentally we#146;ve got to be better at understanding the game.#148;Small ball:St. Francis has a gift, and the Spartans are taking full advantage.In last week#146;s Suburban Christian Conference win over Montini, St. Francis successfully executed a suicide squeeze and also bunted for a single and had three sacrifice bunts. Small ball is a true strength for the Spartans.#147;We#146;re trying to do the little things,#148; said St. Francis coach Rich Janor. #147;We know our pitchers are going to throw strikes and do the job, so our philosophy is to try and get a lead early and just add one an inning.#148;The best example of the Spartans#146; bunting skill came in their April 14 game at Aurora Christian. The score was knotted at 1-1 until the top of the 10th inning when they successfully executed two suicide squeeze plays with consecutive batters. St. Francis won the game 3-1 and sent a message to opponents that they can#146;t afford to be caught on their heels defensively.#147;We try to do the little things, knowing we#146;re not going to rely on the 3-run homer all the time,#148; Janor said. #147;It comes down to pitching and executing the little things.#148;