Wauconda bullish on big start
Despite losing to Vernon Hills on Wednesday, the Wauconda baseball team is off to one of its best starts in school history.
The Bulldogs are 13-7 overall and an even more impressive 6-2 in North Suburban Conference Prairie Division play. Wauconda has swept Lakes and Round Lake and has split with Grant and Vernon Hills.
This is the second straight season the Bulldogs have shot out of the gates. Last year, they lost their first two games and then won 10 in a row.
“I can’t think of too many other seasons in which we started so well in the division,” Wauconda coach Bill Sliker said. “We’re really pleased to be where we are.”
The Bulldogs, who won the Prairie Division title last year with a 10-2 mark, are also a bit surprised.
Although they returned most of their top fielders from last year, such as Jake Ziolkowski, John Kamakis, David Diol, Tony Kaminski and Ryan Gick, the Bulldogs were essentially wiped clean of pitchers by graduation. They lost the top three guys in their rotation, and those three pitched the vast majority of the innings last season.
“We knew we had quite a few talented players back in the field and that it would be a matter of getting some pitchers to step up to replace our guys from last year,” Sliker said. “You never know if that’s going to happen, but we’ve gotten that. Our pitchers have done a great job.”
Brandon Gibis and Shawn Sundquist have emerged at the top of Wauconda’s rotation.
“I feel comfortable with either one of those guys on the mound,” Sliker said. “And we’ve got three or four other guys who are pitching well enough to be in that mix as well.”
James Hulob and Luke Kenny have been among the Bulldogs’ top relievers this season.
Twice as nice:
Many coaches like to stick with one catcher, for stability behind the plate.
But Wauconda coach Bill Sliker has a nice problem on his hands in that he has two catchers who have proven their worth. So, he’s come up with his own version of stability.
The Bulldogs are on a strict every-other-game rotation with their two catchers, Ryan Gick and Kyle Bock. Generally, Gick catches one game and then Bock then next. Then it’s back to Gick and then to Bock again, and so on.
“The competition level there at catcher is so good that we felt that we pretty much had to go this way,” Sliker said. “They’re both so good and they really kind of push each other. I really do feel comfortable with whichever one of those guys is in the lineup on any particular day.”
According to Sliker, the pitchers, who would seemingly be the most affected by variations behind the plate, are comfortable, too.
“They’re really fine with it,” Sliker said. “We’ve talked a lot this season about being good teammates and accepting whichever lineup will help us win each day.”
Sky-high on Everett:
Even in a loss to Stevenson last week, Antioch claimed a small victory.
The Sequoits got a good glimpse of what they might be able to expect out of pitcher Mitch Everett. He hadn’t pitched much prior to that game because Antioch coach Paul Petty values him too much for his speed and fielding in center field. But Everett reminded everyone that he can pitch, too.
“After the game, the Stevenson coach (Paul Mazzuca) was asking me about Mitch, like where he fits into our rotation and all that,” Petty said. “Mitch pitched a very good game. Unfortunately, we didn’t play any defense behind him. We had like 4 or 5 errors in that game. But he did well and kept a very good Stevenson team scoreless for the first three innings.
“At the end of the summer, I was kind of thinking that Mitch would be one of our top three pitchers, and he still might fit that bill. But we’ve really gotten a lot out of him at centerfield this year so his (pitching) opportunities have been limited.”
With his speed in centerfield, Everett has been a buzz kill for hitters all season.
“He’s taken away a lot of base hits, just because he gets such a great jump on flyballs,” Petty said of Everett. “He’s able to track down balls that most kids aren’t able to get to.”
Petty says Everett uses his speed on the mound, too.
“The Stevenson coach was saying that Everett is sneaky-quick and he kind of is,” Petty said. “He works fast and he gets the ball on you pretty quick. I’m just hoping that the Stevenson game will be a catalyst for him and remind him that ‘Yeah, I’ve still got it.’”
Hip check:
Veteran Antioch catcher Joe Gregory has caught a break.
He aggravated a chronic hip injury just before the season started and was told that he would have to sit out, possibly for the duration.
The optimistic outlook was that with enough rest, Gregory could possibly be ready to play again in May, just before the start of the postseason.
But Gregory healed faster than expected and has been practicing with Antioch for the last week and is expected to start catching on a regular basis within the next week.
“It’s such good news for us,” Antioch coach Paul Petty said. “Joe has been starting for us for four years. He’s a big part of our team.
“He’s done a great job of healing himself, keeping a positive outlook and staying mentally tough. He didn’t want to stay out any longer.”
While Gregory was out, he made the most of his time on the bench. He became a “coach” for the Sequoits.
Antioch’s pitching coach Chris Malec works downtown during the day and can’t always make the start of games. He also missed some day games during Spring Break. When Malec wasn’t around, Gregory filled in as pitching coach and called the pitches during games himself.
Not that it was a stretch for Gregory, who knows a thing or two about which pitches work during the course of a game.
“Joe really did whatever he could to stay a part of the team,” Petty said.
Speaking of, Petty plans on keeping Gregory’s replacement, sophomore Adam Harvey, a part of the team as well. Not only did Harvey earn a spot on the varsity with his solid play, but he will serve as valuable insurance as well.
“Joe could be one bad turn away from hurting himself again,” Petty said. “Adam will probably still hit for us, but I also want to keep him close by in case we need him to catch some, too.”
Stepping in, and up:
Vernon Hills coach Jay Czarnecki has been pointing out all season that his team isn’t a one-man team…or a two-man team, or a three-man team, and so on and so on.
He says the most consistent theme from Day One has been that the Cougars regularly get contributions from multiple and different players from game to game.
Last week’s North Suburban crossover against Mundelein was no exception.
Infielder Dylan McNamara has been hampered all season by a shoulder injury and the Mundelein game marked his first start. All McNamara did was get a key hit.
About halfway into the game, which got unexpectedly bumped from Friday to Saturday, McNamara had to leave for a doctor’s appointment that he could not reschedule.
And what happened next further supported the theme of the season.
Ethan McGrew, who stepped in for McNamara, got a key hit that advanced a runner. That runner eventually scored.
“We’ve had a lot of guys contribute at different times,” Czarnecki said. “What I like about this team is that we’ve got a lot of guys who bring different things to the table, and they all have stepped up and filled a role when we’ve needed them.
“It’s nice to have options like that.”
Lineup changes:
By now, most lineups have long been set.
The same players are generally playing the same positions nearly every single game.
But at Warren, the lineup may never be totally set. With so many new and young players to factor into the equation this season, head coach Clint Smothers hasn’t been shy about testing different combinations.
“This year has been really different in that we have given a lot more kids than usual the opportunity to play and play at different positions,” Smothers said. “We’ve had a lot of different lineups and a lot of different combinations. We’ve had really good hitting lineups that haven’t been as good on defense. We’ve had really good defensive lineups that haven’t been as productive on offense. We’ve had younger lineups and lineups with a few sophomores in them.
“We’ve tried a lot of different things and it’s just taking us some time to find the right combination.”
In the meantime, the Blue Devils, who advanced to the sectional title game last year on the strength of a big and talented senior class, have gotten out to a 9-10-1 start. However, they have won three games in a row.
“We’ve got a pretty good hitting lineup going right now. We’ve had a few kids step up there,” said Smothers, citing Pat Kenny and Ben Binter.
Kenny is hitting around .490 and Binter, just a sophomore, has been effective from the No. 2 spot in the order.
Meanwhile, Pat Temaner,Nick Orisilini, Justin Cobe and Ryan Johnson have also come up with key plays in recent weeks. Temaner had a 2-run homer run against Lake Forest, Orisilini has surged to be the second-leading hitter on the team and Cobe and Johnson both had solid games against Lake Forest. Cobe was 2-for-3 against the Scouts.
“We knew we’d be young coming into the season, so we wanted to give plenty of people the chance to step up and I’m just so proud of the way our kids have handled it,” Smothers said. “I’m proud of the way our kids are accepting different kids and different lineups as we try to find the right combination. There’s been no animosity or hard feelings or anything like that. It’s just been a bunch of guys being open to changes and cheering each other on.”
Pat to pitch:
Pitching speeds in the North Suburban Lake Division could be kicked up to a new level soon.
Warren senior Pat Kenny, who has signed with Purdue, hasn’t been able to pitch much this season due to a sore arm. But now that that issue seems to be resolved, Kenny will be getting the Blue Devils up to speed. Literally.
“Pat was throwing 90 to 92 miles per hour before the season got started and you’re not going to see that much at this level,” Warren coach Clint Smothers said. “Pat has been doing a great job offensively for us and he’s been all over the field for us, in the outfield and at first base and at shortstop. But to have him back pitching again would be so great. To have that kind of speed in our rotation would just change everything for us.”