Local grads excelling at Judson, ECC and Waubonsee
The Judson University baseball team is making quite the habit of winning conference titles.
The Eagles recently won their ninth championship (regular season and conference tournament) in the last seven years.
"This is a senior-heavy group that won the regular-season title last year so we had some big expectations," said Judson coach Chad Gassman.
Gassman noted Judson clinched this year's title with four games left in the regular season. Judson now sets its sights on another title when it hosts the CCAC tournament starting Friday in Elgin at Hoffer Field. By winning the regular-season CCAC title, Judson already has earned a bid into the national tournament.
"The good thing is we already know we're in the opening round of the national tournament just like last year," said Gassman.
Judson's success this year - the team was 32-16 through Wednesday - can be traced to strong play in a variety of phases of the game.
At the plate, senior David Matthews (Morton College) has obliterated the school record for home runs in a season. He cracked his 20th in a win over St. Xavier on Tuesday. The previous record was 12. He ranks 12th in all of NAIA in home runs. He also has 56 RBI and a .674 slugging percentage.
"He's had a great year for us," said Gassman. "He leads us in home runs and RBI and has had a lot of big hits for us."
Elgin native Tanner Smith (Francis Marion University) is hitting .314 with 44 runs scored, 48 hits and 27 RBI. Josh Krueger (Romeoville) is at .327 with 54 hits, 6 homers and 39 RBI. He has 16 extra-base hits. Conor Grove (Lincoln-Way North) leads the team in hitting at .329 with 46 hits, 10 doubles, 9 homers, 27 RBI and a .593 slugging percentage.
"We're hitting the ball really well," said Gassman, whose team has a .276 batting average, while opposing batters are hitting .262. "A lot of guys are having great years."
On the mound, Larkin product Miguel Villafane is 6-3 with a 1.55 ERA. He's allowed only 12 earned runs in 69⅔ innings, while giving up just 48 hits and striking out 75. Opponents are hitting .198 against him.
"Miguel has the low ERA and has pitched very well for us," said Gassman.
Burlington Central's Dan Gerke is 8-1 on the season and has a 2.41 ERA. He's struck out 62 in 67⅓ innings. Brandon Callender (Plainfield Central) is 8-2 with a 2.47 ERA and has struck out 45 in 65⅔ innings.
"Miguel, Danny and Brandon are our top three arms and they all have been doing well," said Gassman.
Jacobs product Evan Liebau is 4-2 with a 3.19 ERA and has made nine starts this spring.
"We have four or five top-quality arms," said Gassman. "These are guys who can go deep into games and that's been a key to our success."
In the field, Gassman lauded the work of Smith at shortstop and Adam Rojas (St. Charles native via Spring Arbor University) behind the plate. Rojas is hitting .292 with 3 homers and 25 RBI. "We are really solid up the middle with those guys," the coach said.
Gassman said this year has been about maximizing the talent of a roster filled with veteran players. "We are a team that loses 20 seniors," he said. "We may as well go out and have some fun this year. It's a great group. The seniors have a lot of heart and have put in a lot of work. We will dearly miss them. They have had a great year."
Judson opens the CCAC tournament as the No. 1 seed and will play No. 8 St. Ambrose at 7 p.m., at Hoffer Field. The double-elimination tournament continues Saturday, Monday and Tuesday with the if necessary championship game slated for Wednesday.
ECC
Another local college baseball team quite familiar with winning championship is veteran coach Bill Angelo's Elgin Community College squad.
ECC won the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference title with a 17-3 mark. Earlier this week, Oakton and McHenry County played with Oakton sweeping a pair of games which gave ECC the outright title. MCC had 2 losses going into its Oakton series.
"We're a little banged up right now," said Angelo, whose team is 24-17 overall. "When we have everybody healthy we pitch it pretty well and we play pretty good defense. Offensively, we are not a team that is going to go out and score 10-plus runs a game, but we seem to be capable of manufacturing runs when we need to. We play small ball. We'll move runners over and try to score some runs."
ECC earned a top-4 seed in the sectional tournament that starts Saturday. ECC is the No. 2 seed behind Oakton. The Spartans will host Milwaukee Saturday for a pair of games with a Sunday if-necessary game to complete the best 2-of-3 series.
On the mound, Lyons Township alum Jose Venegas, a freshman, is 6-0 with a 2.51 ERA. He has 43 strikeouts in as many innings pitched.
St. Charles North graduate Steven de la Torriente is 1-2 with a save and a 2.50 ERA.
"Steven in relief has thrown extremely well," said Angelo. "He's been huge for us in some big games."
One of those games was ECC's recent 22-inning marathon win over McHenry County where de la Torriente threw the final 10 innings and allowed 1 unearned run.
"That was against a very good offensive team," said Angelo. "He kept battling. He rolled his ankle the second inning he was out there, but kept going. We were able to punch one across in the 22nd and get the win. It was a pretty cool game. It was one of the more fun games I've been part of. It was two teams that were evenly matched. Both teams made plays to get out of jams, but de la was huge for us."
Metea Valley graduate Matt Vass (freshman) is 4-2, while Kyle Creadon, a sophomore from Burlington Central, gives Angelo another strong pitching option.
"Kyle is another one of our solid arms," said Angelo, who noted as of midweek Venegas likely would start the first game of the sectional likely followed by Vass.
At the plate Burlington Central alum Clay Milas (freshman) has been a key contributor for the Spartans, hitting .374 through midweek. "Clay is a catalyst for us," said Angelo. "He's our leadoff guy and he's been up there all year. He has a .491 on-base percentage and gets us going. He's scored 46 runs, which is 20 more than the next guy. It seems like he's on base every day."
Lefty Colin Fowich (Lake Park, freshman) has played third, first and DH for Angelo this season, while St. Charles North graduate Luke Corcoran (sophomore) has been a steady hand at short. "Luke has probably been our most consistent," said Angelo. "In my opinion, he's our MVP because he has done a great job at shortstop. At St. Charles North he played third as a sophomore, second as a junior and first as a senior. He didn't get a ton of playing time for us last year because we had a pretty solid infield. I didn't try him at short until this year and it's worked out pretty well. He's hitting .358 and playing great defense."
Larkin alum Zach Edgar is hitting .346, playing center field and hitting cleanup for Angelo. "Here's another guy who has been a pretty important piece of the puzzle," said Angelo.
Waubonsee
Waubonsee Community College opens the sectional playoffs Saturday at Joliet Junior College with a doubleheader. The if-necessary third game of the series is slated for Sunday. Waubonsee was 27-19 through midweek and finished conference play 10-9.
Coach Brad Unger's squad has benefited this year from a roster filled with capable hands. "Our team's strength this year has been our depth," he said. "We lost our top five pitchers coming into the season and two positional players due to various injuries and academics. We only have eight true sophomores on the team with 17 freshmen. Young players have had to step up and compete immediately to help the team win games."
Unger said the team's approach at the plate has been predicated on what the other team is doing on defense. "I like that we take a mentality into a game of taking what the defense gives us," he said. "Our goal is to move the defense. If they play back, we can manufacture. If they play in to take away the small-ball game, we can swing it gap to gap."
Sophomore co-captain Dolan Nicholson (Denton, Texas) is leading the team in hitting at .414 and has an OPS of 1.016. He also has 14 doubles, 3 triples, a homer and 24 RBI to go with 15 stolen bases.
Freshman Garret Goetz (Oswego East) is hitting .415 with 18 doubles, 1 homer, 45 RBI and 13 stolen bases to go with a 1.059 OPS. Freshman Justin Sartori (Sandwich) is hitting .359 with 15 doubles, 41 RBI and 6 stolen bases.
Co-captain Joshua Meyers (Marmion) leads the way defensively. Meyers was a first-team all-Region IV pick last year and a second-team all-American selection. "Joshua has followed his freshman season with another great defensive season in the outfield," said Unger.
Meyers has 13 outfield assists. "He completely changes the game, forcing teams into two-base hits to score players from second base on balls hit to right field," the coach added.
West Aurora alum Logan Love, a sophomore, is 6-2 on the mound with 1 save and 5 complete games. He has 52 strikeouts and only 8 walks in 46⅓ innings, while logging a 2.72 ERA.
Freshman Jordan Isham (Sandwich) is 6-2 with a 2.81 ERA to go with 46 strikeouts in 51⅓ innings. "He's another pitcher who has stepped up in a big way," said Unger. "Logan and Jordan anchor our pitching staff. They have done a tremendous job using their stuff and mixing their pitches to pitch deep into games. Since we lost our top arms coming into the season, Jordan and Logan have stepped it up greatly. They both were going to be back-end-of-the-rotation guys and now are the front-end guys and they have handled that pressure in stride."
Sartori is 3-0 with 1 save and 1 complete game. He has 25 strikeouts in 27 innings, while also maintaining a 4.0 grade-point average in the classroom. "Justin is another player who has excelled in the classroom and on the field," said Unger.
Unger said his team also isn't hurting on the leadership front. "Joshua and Dolan have been huge with their leadership all year," he said. "Logan, Jordan, Justin and Garrett have taken after those two and have become great leaders in their own right as well. They have all put together fantastic seasons for us."
Unger knows exactly what his squad needs to do in order to be successful against Joliet this weekend. "We will need to execute our offense for us to be successful - doing the little things at the plate, grinding ABs, spoiling tough pitches and working counts to get into another team's bullpen," he said. "If we can have productive outs, we will have a great opportunity to advance deep into the postseason."