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I hate to say anything, but if I know a team is only decent / good because of a player or two, I am not intimidated by them. Naz has a couple of good players, nothing near overpowering by a longshot though.

That being said, I am always intimidated by LT, as are all of my teammates. You don't have to look up their past records to know they are perenially amazing. As for the Naz earlier this week, ... not so much.

You credit your lack of success to moving into the ESCC ... that is what ballyall is talking about. You guys aren't contending year in and year out, which is the way LT is / has been for a long while.

As far as "Naz is known among the players" ... I wouldn't quite say that.
I don't know the starting pitchers name but it was number 44, first name Eric. He went 2 2/3 innings. He was relieved by #21, AJ Fedorik (don't know the spelling for sure) and they used a third guy, but again, I don't know his name.
Kevin Sullivan went for HP.
HO scores for the 4 games:
HP 12 Maine East 2
HP 12 Palatine 2
HP 15 Loyola 2
Then the ND final today.
Well, today we were the visitors because we were 5th seed, Notre Dame 2nd seed. We scored one in the first, ND plated 3 in the second to take a 3-1 lead.In the third we sent 13 men to the plate and scored 8. They IW'd Risi but it didn't work. Risi walked the second time up in the inning as well. The kids had 7 hits in the inning. In the 4th & 5th we scored 4 each time. 4 guys had multiple hits, with Kopp going 5-5. It'll be a tough route from here on in, but fun.
Notre Dames starting pitcher was junior Eric McClure. N.D.coaches definitely left him in there too long ...8 runs in the third inning. The consenus among us n.d folks was that our pitching could have been set up much better during the week to give us a better chance today. Blown call ( safe ) at third base during that 8 run inning kept that inning alive for Highland Park and changed the complexion of the game. Score was 4-3 at that time. Instead...inning continued to 9-3 . The home plate ump later admitted to me in between innings that the base ump blew the call. oh well . The lone bright spot for the Dons was a 2 run bomb to left that cut thru the wind by Joe Wietecha .
Last edited by sulltiger24
Yes, that was a great hit. I was a bit nervous when ND went up 3-1. Going into the game it was an even match. Both our teams scored 39 runs in the first 3 games. HP had give up 6 and ND 7. We watched the ND impressive victory yesterday and I felt the game would have been closer. However, there were "game changing" calls on both sides. Remember the call at first? How could the home plate ump make the call without even seeing it? Coach Knotek had good reason to argue. I seriously doubt that one or two call during the game made that much of an impact. Our pitching could also have been set up better. However, our guy hung in there, thus giving all the other guys a much needed rest. One of our main pitchers had a sprained ankle, one has had a bad cold. The other two just pitched, so fortunately Kevin got the complete game.
Playball

The other base ump hung out the home plate ump to dry when he didnt make a call at first base that was his call to make...instead putting home plate ump on the spot asking him to make the call . The other base ump who i referred to blowing the call at third, shouldnt even be on any baseball field umpiring a high school playoff game at his age ...70 ? The play was right in front of him ...ball beats runner ..glove down in front of bag before hand gets there ...obviously out . Yes...this call had an affect on the outcome . We had the out and should have gotten it. simple as that. Would have been much better game with just the home plate ump going solo out there.

Not taking anything away from H.P. They hit the ball well and made more plays than we did ( our defense was pretty sloppy ) . I just feel it should have been a much different type of game than it turned out to be.
Last edited by sulltiger24
Well, if the ump inquestion is the one that I am thinking of, he is actually pushing 80. While he does miss his fair share of calls, he does know the rules and get many correct.

Sure he isnt the greatest anymore, but you can always count on him to be at a game and to do his best.

It is unfortunate that he did mess up in a big contest like the one being mentioned--he probably should be working regular season non-conference games.
One thing about being a ump - at least 50% of the crowd is going to think you made a terrible call!
Yes, young & old alike have blown calls. What has always fascinated me is fans, sitting at least 100 feet away from a call, obscured by a cloud of dust, are certain the ump blew a call because a ball beats a runner to the bag. What they don't see is the possibility that the ump, 5 - 10 feet away, may have seen a right hand safely touch the outfield side of a base while the defender held the ball down waiting for the runner to slide into the tag. Just reference the Cubs - Giants game when the Cubs lost. If the ump makes the automatic call (out)just because the throw beat the Giants runner, he would have been wrong. Replays showed that, although the ball beat him, the runner had is arm outstretched and beat the upper body tag.
I myself don't want to make any predictions, just enjoy the ride no matter what happens. I do know HP has a very deep and talented pitching staff and a strong defense. We could not have predicted what happened in the regionals; all of our games went via the 5 inning mercy rule. We have 7 kids who could be a stopper on any given day, plus 4 more kids who could give quality innings. But, as everyone saw with the spring tournament, you just never know. All of the teams deserve a great "atta boy".
Last edited by BBFan58
This should be the tentative schedule for the IHSBCA State Finals:

Monday July 23rd
(at North Central College)
9:00 Fenwick* vs. Carl Sandburg
11:30 Hinsdale South* vs. Lake Zurich
2:00 Oak Forest* vs. Highland Park
4:30 Jacobs* vs. Glenbard North

Tuesday July 24th
(at Benedictine University)
10:00 Carl Sandburg* vs. Hinsdale South
12:30 Lake Zurich* vs. Fenwick

(at North Central College)
11:00 Highland Park* vs. Jacobs
1:30 Glenbard North* vs. Oak Forest

Wednesday July 25th
(at Benedictine University)
10:00 Glenbard North* vs. Highland Park
12:30 Oak Forest* vs. Jacobs

(at North Central College)
11:00 Fenwick* vs. Hinsdale South
1:30 Carl Sandburg* vs. Lake Zurich

Thursday July 26th
(at North Central College)
2:00 #1 Seed Pool A* vs. #2 Seed Pool B
5:00 #1 Seed Pool B* vs. #2 Seed Pool A

Friday July 27th
(at Benedictine University)
7:30 Winners of Thursday's Semifinal Games

im sure these games are subject to change, but should be accurate
*- denotes Home Team and first base dugout
Last edited by LPBaseball21
Highland Park defeated Glenbard North 3-2 in 8 innings to advance to the semi-finals, most likely against a very tough Sandburg team.
Both pitchers today threw great games, with solid defense on both sides. Mirman for HP threw a 1 hitter, going 7 innings.Both teams scored in the 5th, making it 1-1 heading into the 8th. HP scored two in the top of the inning, with Kevin Sullivan, limited to a pinch hitting role today due to a sore leg getting the bases loaded hit to score 2. Mirman threw a 1 hitter for HP. After walking the leadoff batter in the 8th, Jimmy Risi came on to get the save for HP. Cocat for Glenbard was equally tough, keeping HP off balance until the 8th inning.
Last edited by BBFan58
Hey Playbaseball

Are you being Sarcastic in saying "I'm stuned"

Meaning that Fenwick should face Sandburg in the Championship game?

All of these teams have fought very "HARD" to get to the Summer playoffs. The GAMES have been very solid in Pool A and in Pool B.

Fenwick and Sandburg deserve to be in the Championship as they both played very well.

Our team will be there again. Our guys gave it all, with allot of heart and desire to play hard and make it happen to get to the Semi's

Currious what the enrollment is at Sandburg and Fenwick?
Mike Falsetti is the catcher from fenwick, 2009. Mike plays summer ball with the berwyn bulldogs 16u and two other players from fenwick play with the bulldogs as well. Cam Verbeke, Mike Loni. This past weekend mike Falsetti hit a monster home run at the University of Illinois field. many D1 schools are showing interest. Cam verbeke has been very good for both teams this year as well in the of/p.

Another pitcher in state who is making some noise is LHP Ryan Crowley (morton 2009) also a berwyn bulldog. Ryan has hit 88mph this summer. a lot of D1 schools are showing interest.
Congratulations to both Sandburg and Fenwick. It should be a great game! The first time they met the final score was 4-3 Sandburg. On a personal note I wanted to recognize some of the seniors who are showing great leadership and play on the field. SS Reid Rooney has totaled 7 RBI batting out of the three hole and 1B Rob Bak is riding a hot bat all tournament (especially his 4 for 4 vs. Jacobs).
I know Falsetti is a very good catcher after seeing him over the years compete for the Berwyn team against the various teams my son has played with.
But i also got the chance this summer to witness another very very good catcher ---Matt Mirabell --from Top Tier Prospects and from Mount Carmel..WOW !! This kid has one of the best arms from behind the plate that i have ever seen. I had heard that he was clocked at 1.85 down to second . Can also hit with power. Definitely has to be one of the top 08 D1 prospects . He is one heck of a weapon behind the dish .
bballdad1954- D1 schools frequently email kids before July of their jr year summer. It is a good thing to reach out to the coaches and just shoot them a email describing yourself and expressing your interest because if they know your kid is interested, when they see him the college coach will already know hes interested and take a little bit of a closer look. Make sure your kid sends it though and make sure his grammer is correct. If GPA is a strength make sure to include that.
itsrosy,
Thanks for the kind words. HP did have a great run and it will be interesting next year, as we are one of the 'under the radar' teams that could sneak up on people next year. We played against some great competition in this tournament and it was a nice learning experience. Due to some injuries we had to switch some kids around against Sandburg and we made 4 errors. They are just too good to play that kind of ball against. Prior to this game we played outstanding defense. A tip of the cap to their team and pitcher Will Keuper. We had a few great scoring opportunities but they buckled down each time and closed us down. But, being mainly die hard Cubs fans, it's in our blood to "wait 'til next year". Best luck and wishes to Sandburg and Fenwick in the final.
Sandburg 4 Fenwick 1! Congradualtions to both teams on a great run. Sandburg showed timely hitting, solid defense and great pitching. RHP Greg Billo was the winning pitcher and was name tourny MVP. Steven Kaffel is a very impressive hitter for Sandburg. Congradulations to Fenwick's Reid Rooney and Rob Bak for making All Tournamnet Team.
Congrats to Sandburg--

Now I would love to hear people's thoughts on the significance of this championship and the high school summer league in general.

I know that you only can play the teams on your schedule and that winning a championship requires timely play and talent, but we all know that many kids play legion or other sports during this time.

I guess my question is how much of an indication for next season does the prior summer season have? I would love to hear some quantitative results, perhaps a 1-10 scale, with 10 being very indicative, and a 1 indicating basically meaningless.

How significant is summer league?

ANy thoughts?
CoachB,

I don't think you could have made your case any better. There's no question that up here in the northern part of the state, namely the Chicago area, we have no problem calling anything a State title. I guess it is wrong, both geographically and in spirit to just ignore the fact that 90% of the state didn't participate in this tournament.
We played in a county Bronco league championship game back in the day and the opposing team had an outfielder who was born in Montreal, Canada. He spoke funny French or whatever. Just because we beat his team, (2-1 was the final with me scoring the winning run) our coach had a big sign/banner made that said "1992 Bronco League World Champions." It is still up beyond right field today although the blue and orange paint is a little faded. I always thought this was stretching it a little bit.
Let's try to be factual here guys. I'm not going to get in the argument about it being called a state championship but their are over 150 schools participating in this tournament. This includes schools from the Rockford area, Quad cities, and some schools this year from the city. It has grown just about every year. To be crowned champion in a tournament with 150+ schools participating is a tremendous accomplishment. Call it what you want but Sandburg will be considered a top team next Spring and it will be well deserved. 95-98% of schools not participating? That's simply not true.
My dad still thinks he is cool by wearing his bright red bowling shirt that says 1976 City Champs scripted across the front. It is a real sore subject to bring up how the two bowling alleys across town were not even represented in the tournament. I keep telling my brother to just let it go! The shirt is really embarrassing when he wears it out to Sunday brunch before church.
Well we still havent come up with an actual and factual number of participating teams, but since it is sanctioned by the IHSBCA it is a state championship. All of these other legion leagues and travel teams are fine, but dont resent the fact that Sandburg took home the crown from a very large pool of teams(bigger than any travel tournament that I know of)
CoachB, You should never feel like you have to delete anything that you've said here, IMO. Your knowledge of Illinois HS Baseball so far supercedes most of us on this board, so please keep it coming.

Believe me, I don't have a horse in this race at all. But, playing devil's advocate, while this event is called the IHSBCA State Summer Tournament, you don't see any mention of it on the IHSA website. The IHSA doesn't provide anything regarding this tournament, dates, teams, scores, nadda. Also, if you look who makes up the board of directors of the IHSBCA it is clear that it is exclusively made up of schools in the northern part of our state. That's not a bad thing, it just is what it is. I don't think anyone is taking anything away from the teams that competed and from the eventual winner, Sandburg. Call it semantics or whatever, but if all of the schools in the lower 3/4 part of the state don't participate, can't someone question if this is really a state title, that's all.
Last edited by itsrosy
Life is good; Cubs closing in on first (Phillies just tied it), 143 teams from 8 Regionals in the "whatever" tournament......great baseball for all (except Sox fans). Who cares what it is called......these kids enjoyed playing great baseball..deserve some "atta boys"...........great experience that can be built upon. They faced some good pitchers and played good ball. I didn't see any of the so called "elite" players refusing to play because it was beneath them. 756 or so teams........split between A & AA...so why not say the same about the spring state tournamanet, unless the finalists from both classes play each other? The HP players learned quite a bit and saw what it will take to get to the next level. They realized they have the pitching, defense, and bats to compete. They had fun and are excited about next year, while realizing anything can happen. After all, look at the several "sure thing" teams from this past spring. Nequa Valley, the AA state champ was ranked by PBR as 43rd. NV was in the Glenbard South regional of the IHSBCA.
Last edited by BBFan58

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