State American Legion tourney opens Saturday at Barrington
Teams from Wheaton, Elgin and Barrington are in the 6-team field for the state American Legion baseball tournament, which runs Saturday through Tuesday at Barrington High School.
Games start at 10 a.m. at Kirby Smith Field, 616 W. Main St.
"It is a great honor to host the state tournament," said tournament director Robert Kruse of Barrington Post 158, "especially since this is the 100th anniversary of the American Legion."
The winner advances to the Great Lakes championship Aug. 7 at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Wheaton Post 76 qualified as the runner-up of Division 2. The Thunder (22-10), who were in the 2015 state tournament, were awarded the runner-up spot since runner-up Barrington was an automatic qualifier as host.
Wheaton has players mainly from Wheaton North and Glenbard North high schools, with JD Rienow from Wheaton Academy and Frank Severino from St. Viator. Ryan Russman, Michael Sullivan, Carson Roberts and Joe Klein are from Wheaton North, while Jimmy Zay and Brandon Cole lead the way from Glenbard North.
"We were second in three tournaments this year," Wheaton coach Jerry Miller said. "We are right there."
Elgin Post 57 advanced by winning the Division 2 tournament last week, beating Barrington 7-4. Elgin (32-5-1), which went to state last year and won the title in 2015, draws players from Larkin, South Elgin, Hampshire, Harvest Christian and St. Edward high schools.
Elgin, winners of 6 of 7 tournaments, relies heavily on 12 college players, manager Bob Todd said.
South Elgin players Tyler Sloan (Elmhurst), Ryan Dominick (Westminster Christian) and Nicholas Poblocki (Westminster Christian), along with Harvest Christian Academy's Dayn Fredrick (Judson) and Drew Lewis (Judson) and Larkin's Cy Kerber (Elgin Community College) are some of those key players. Hampshire's Jake Walsh, St. Edward's Jack Olson and Larkin's Max Anderson also figure prominently.
Barrington Post 158 had a workhorse summer, finishing 31-10-2.
"We have had a weekend tournament every weekend. I have a lot of guys who didn't play a lot this spring and it has been good for us," Barrington coach Nate Gray said.
Luc Bressett from Cary-Grove is the only player who didn't play at Barrington High. Bressett, who attends the University of Kansas, played last year for Gray and was named one of nine national scholarship winners from the American Legion.
Along with Bressett, Barrington is led by AJ Christoffer, Rayth Petersen and John Seagrist, all of whom hit well when they played at Barrington last spring.
"We have to manufacture some runs," Gray said. "We don't strike out. We just need good at-bats. Pitching and defense have been great all summer, and the difference will be our hitting."
Daniel Ensign, who is pitching for Gordon College near Boston, leads the staff which includes Nick Loutos, Richard Kanak, Adrian Nery, Matthew Vojack and Max Raynor.
Wheaton takes on Danville Post 210 (27-6-1) at 10 a.m. Saturday, Elgin meets Rock Island Post 200 (21-9-1) at 1 p.m., and Barrington plays Steeleville Post 480 (15-5) at 4 p.m.