Jacobs enjoying nice turnaround season
The Jacobs baseball team is putting together one of the more successful seasons in program history.
Guided by first-year head coach Jamie Murray, a former Bradley pitcher who spent the previous three years as Jacobs’ pitching coach, the Golden Eagles are 15-10 overall and 9-4 in the highly competitive Fox Valley Conference. They finished 14-19 in 2011.
Jacobs has not won 20 games since at least 1996, according to available records. Its best season in the last 16 years was 2010, when Ben Albano led the team to a 19-16-1 finish. Jacobs won 18 games in 1999 and 2003.
The 2012 squad has 7 regular season games remaining, plus the playoffs to match or surpass those teams. However, whether the Eagles reach 20 victories is less important to their coach than the progress he has seen from his junior-heavy team on a day-to-day basis.
“I’m so proud of these kids,” Murray said. “They’re young and resilient. We have 19 juniors, six seniors. We’ve played a very competitive schedule that (former coach) Erik Kehoe beefed up last year, but there hasn’t been a day when we felt like we didn’t belong.
“We’re keeping things positive, and it seems like the kids have bought into our philosophy at all levels.”
A strong pitching staff leads the way. Jacobs has gotten reliable starting pitching from senior Greg Mixon (4-1, 2.55), and juniors Evan Blunk (4-2, 0.86 ERA), Max Rider (2-1) and Nick Ledinsky (3-3, 1.76). In 42 innings, Blunk has allowed only 5 earned runs, struck out a team-best 50 hitters and walked 7.
Senior closer Zac Camacho (1-1) has 4 saves and a 0.91 ERA with 22 strikeouts and 4 walks in 23 innings.
Murray has a four-point pitching philosophy he imparts to his staff: command the fastball, change the hitter’s eye line by locating pitches throughout the strike zone, change speeds and throw with velocity. The result is a team ERA of 2.09.
The Golden Eagles hope solid pitching translates to the first baseball regional title in school history this month. Jacobs will compete in the Class 4A Huntley regional against the host school, Dundee-Crown, Crystal Lake South and Rockford Jefferson.
“It’s never happened at Jacobs, but that’s our goal,” Murray said. “We didn’t sign up just to win X amount of games. We want to go down to Joliet.”
Easy to Gage: Elgin has struggled at the plate this season, evidenced by a .236 team batting average. Senior catcher Gage Teschner has been the exception.
Entering Thursday’s game against Geneva, Teschner was hitting .383 (31-for-81) with 2 doubles, 5 walks and 17 RBI. No other Maroon is hitting above .288.
“He’s a three-year varsity player and he’s gotten better every year,” Elgin coach David Foerster said. “He’s been great behind the plate and, offensively, he’s carried us. For a team like us that scrambles to score runs, he’s the guy we want up in spots and he’s come through for us.
“He’s a real great kid and player to coach, and I’m lucky to have a guy like that behind the plate.”
Teschner, an Elgin co-captain, drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh of a 4-3 victory over Batavia last week.
Umps hear everything: An Elgin baseball player learned a lesson this week in what not to say within earshot of an umpire.
The hitter jumped back to avoid being hit in a sensitive spot by an inside pitch from a Geneva hurler.
Relieved he wasn’t struck by the pitch, the hitter turned to his teammate on deck and said, “Whew, and I’m not wearing a cup.”
“That was the wrong thing to say,” said the home-plate umpire, who immediately stopped the game until the hitter returned from the dugout wearing the required equipment.