Mack perseveres and excels at Grinnell
Andrew Mack is finishing up his senior season at Grinnell College in superb fashion.
After fighting elbow and shoulder problems that kept him sidelined for most of the past two seasons, the Libertyville graduate has come back for his final year to lead Grinnell's pitching staff and the team to the Midwest Conference tournament.
Despite both injuries still being an issue at times this spring, Mack is leading the team in several categories and is a conference leader, too.
He leads the team in ERA (2.25) and opposing batting average (.247), WHIP, strikeouts per inning and strikeouts looking.
During his career, Mack has been all-conference in baseball and academics.
• Hope College's Brant Kym (Libertyville) has had a strong freshman season in Holland, Mich.
Brant earned a starting spot at second base for the Flying Dutchmen and went on to post a .346 batting average and a slugging percentage of .506 with 10 doubles and a home run. He finished the season in the top 15 in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association in both batting average and slugging percentage.
In the regular-season finale vs. the first place Adrian Bulldogs, Brant belted a 2-run homer to tie the game. Hope eventually went on to win that game in a must-win that catapulted the Dutchmen into the MIAA playoffs.
Softball
Wisconsin-Whitewater freshman utility player Vera Pflugradt (Stevenson) was selected position player of the year in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
She ranks among WIAC leaders in batting average (.392) and slugging percentage (.557), and enters the week with 5 doubles, 19 runs scored and 17 runs batted in. In conference games only, she ranks second in the WIAC in batting average (.429) and is fourth in slugging percentage (.667), on-base percentage (.467) and hits (18). Pflugradt was named WIAC Position Player of the Week for games April 2-8.
•North Central junior Rachele Belletini (Warren) started 39 games, recording a .291 batting average, recorded 37 hits including 6 doubles and 3 home runs along with 24 RBI and 30 runs.
Men's soccer
Stevenson senior Matt Brickman, a Buffalo Grove native, has signed a letter of intent to play for DePaul.
At Stevenson, Brickman was an all-conference and all-sectional recipient and an ODP state team participant. He currently plays on the Schwaben AC club team.
"DePaul has a beautiful campus feel in an urban location," Brickman said in the Blue Demon soccer website. "The competitive Big East Conference and the warm culture that surrounds DePaul both academically and athletically made my choice to sign with the Blue Demons that much easier."
Brickman plans to major in health science while at DePaul in pursuit of a pre-medicine concentration.
• Libertyville junior Grant Herbek has announced his commitment to DePaul. He still has one season left to play for Libertyville coach Kevin Thunholm.
"Libertyville has one of the best defenses in the state, and the junior is a big reason why," Thunholm said after Herbek's all-area season last fall. "He's a defender who is calm and cool. Nothing rattles him. He's always in the right place and organizes the defense. He takes pride in our number of shutouts this season."
Women's rowing
Buffalo Grove High School graduate Mia Inman represented Michigan State on Sunday at the Big 10 Women's Rowing championships at Eagle Creek Municipal Park outside Indianapolis, Ind.
She competed in the 1v4 (the No. 1 four-person varsity boat).
Inman ran cross country and track while at Buffalo Grove, where she graduated in 2015.
The senior is a walk-on for the Spartans. She had no previous on-the-water rowing experience but had logged plenty of meters on the indoor rower at Elite Athletic Development, CrossFit Arlington Heights.
A biological sciences major, honor's college student and member of the prestigious Bailey Scholar program, Inman was also named to the MSU dean's list for receiving a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Men's lacrosse
Augustana junior Brian Hinsberger (Lake Zurich) shares the team lead with 20 caused turnovers as the Vikings finished the season 8-8 overall and 3-3, good for fourth place in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Football
Libertyville place-kicker Matt Rudolphi has committed to play football at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
• Please email items to jleusch@dailyherald.com