Streamwood’s Lundeen headed to Valpo
Streamwood senior Dalton Lundeen has reaped the reward for years of hard work in the classroom and on the baseball diamond.
A football, basketball and baseball player for the Sabres, the left-handed pitcher committed Tuesday to play baseball at Valparaiso University.
Lundeen is ranked No. 12 in the Streamwood senior class. He scored 30 on the ACT and carries a 4.5 grade-point average.
Though he had offers to play baseball at Elgin Community College, Winona State (Minn.) and Lindenwood (Mo.), he opted for Valparaiso once he received an academic scholarship that will cover 90 percent of tuition. A baseball scholarship will cover the rest.
“I’m happy it’s finally settled,” Lundeen said. “It’s almost a full ride academically, which is awesome. Once I got the letter confirming (the academic scholarship), I called them and said, ‘I’m in.’ It was exciting to get that letter.”
Lundeen intends to study business with a focus on marketing.
“Having brains is good,” Streamwood baseball coach Steve Diversey said. “It’s a good way to go to school because, God forbid, if anything should happen injury-wise, he’s still got his scholarship. Finally being able to commit and get that monkey off your back is nice. Now he can just play the rest of the year and have fun.”
Lundeen was a baseball all-area honorable mention selection as a junior, when he went 7-2 as the team’s No. 2 starter and helped the Sabres to the best season in school history. In 12 appearances (10 starts) he struck out 71, walked 23 and posted a 2.74 ERA in 611⁄3 innings for a team that went 30-7 and advanced to the Class 4A Elite Eight.
In 7 starts this season, he is 3-3 with 4 complete games, 38 strikeouts, 15 walks and a 4.00 ERA in 42 innings.
Lundeen proactively began the relationship with Valparaiso by sending the coaching staff an introductory email last fall. The Valparaiso staff saw him in person this spring at a couple of showcase events and told the Streamwood pitcher they were interested. The Crusaders called last week and guaranteed him a roster spot.
“They only have two left-handed pitchers in their system coming back,” Lundeen said, “so there’s going to be a good opportunity to pitch freshman year, which is cool.”
Lundeen (6-foot, 195 pounds) was also Streamwood’s quarterback for three seasons. Last fall he led the Sabres to their first playoff berth since 2002 by completing 84 of 166 attempts for 1,437 yards and 14 touchdowns. He turned down an offer to play football at Northwestern as a preferred walk-on.
“I think it’s a lot tougher to do that,” Lundeen said. “I think baseball is the right decision. I think it’s going to be an easier transition.”