Cook baseball notes: Maine East honors Gufstaveson

Maine East held a ceremony on April 20 before the start of its game with Payton Prep to honor the memory of former player Wolfgang Gufstaveson.

A former Blue Demon, Gufstaveson was tragically killed last December in Carbondale where he was a freshman at Southern Illinois. Gufstaveson was riding with Frank Martinez of Elk Grove when they collided with another truck.

Maine East coach Ron Clark said he wanted to do something special to honor his former player. From his speech before the game, Clark said:

“Wolf was a freshman at SIU majoring in automotive technology. He was an incredible son, brother, cousin, grandson, nephew, and friend to many. He loved cars and anything with an engine, snowboarding, and of course baseball. Wolf had a contagious laugh, lit up a room, and had a knack for making others feel comfortable and welcome. He was always willing to lend a helping hand. Wolf was a hardworking and strong individual who was loyal, had a passion for learning, and loved a challenge.”

Maine East presented Gustaveson’s family with a framed No. 12 jersey that Gufstaveson wore. His brother Henry threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The Blue Demons also spray painted Gufstaveson’s No. 12 just behind home plate. Ironically, that is the same number of runs Maine East scored that day in an 18-12 loss to Payton.

State seeding

Despite the cooler temperatures the past couple of weeks, it is nearing seeding time for baseball. The postseason is scheduled to begin the week of May 20 and will culminate with the state finals June 10-11.

Area teams will have to submit their seeds May 6 with seeds posted the next day and pairings announced on May 8.

That means that teams all over the state will be playing games that will not affect their seed. Teams could play four games each week, meaning that they could have 20-25 percent of their final schedule not being taken into account on seeding day.

The best example for pushing the seeding back at least one more week came last season in the Mid-Suburban League. The MSL title game, which featured Hersey and Barrington, did not count in the seeding process since it was played the Friday after seeds were announced.

Hersey beat Barrington in that game last year. Yet because that game was after the seeds were announced, Barrington had already been awarded the second seed while Hersey ended up being a sixth seed.

Here are the top 8 teams in the area sectionals. Records are through April 24:

4A Stevenson sectional: Conant 14-3, Mundelein 14-4, Libertyville 15-5-1, Prospect 13-6, Stevenson 15-8, Highland Park 13-7, Hersey 12-7, Schaumburg 11-5.

3A Grayslake Central sectional: Lakes 13-5, Wauconda 14-6, Grayslake Central 12-6, St. Viator 14-7, Crystal Lake South 11-7, Prairie Ridge 12-9, Lake Forest 9-7.

There could be tremendous change in these records and possible seeding in the next 10 days and certainly in the next 17 days.

The obvious answer is to move the seeds back at least one more week. That could be done easily since the coaches now submit their sectional seeds electronically to the IHSA and then the IHSA tabulates them and produces the complete sectional field just two days later.

Currently, the IHSA has said it needs the full two weeks in order to schedule umpires for their respective playoff games. Yet these umpires already know that they are working the state playoffs and have those dates on their schedule. All the umpires would need to know iw what field to show up to.

Could this change be implemented for next season? The coaches are in agreement that it should.