Playoff Predictions, Scores, Hightlights...

St. Rita beat Marist 5-4 behind the strength of 2 Tony Zych home runs. Marist led 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth before the comeback.

Rita squeeks out wins all the time against inferior opponents. Seems like every year on paper they are head and shoulders above everyone but they don't play that way, they play way too many close games. They only had to beat Rice once to win the league and they lost to them twice. I know you got to get lucky to win and go down state but they should be dominating teams. I wouldn't be surprised if they run into a good pitcher and get beat soon.

does anyone know if Conant threw Austin Wright in their first game? They are a 16 seed playing Schaumburg whose the #1 seed, if they have Austin throw that could be a huge upset very early for a good team.

I read in the Elgin Courier that Wright did not pitch.

Walt Wijas pitched for Conant.

Scores- http://www.ihsa.org/scores/8y21ba4.htm

Schaumburg beat Conant 2 to 1 tonight. Close nail biter of a game, and yes, Austin Wright did pitch!

I knew that would be a tough game, Conant was a 16-seed. Seems there's already some good games, WWS beat Downer's South who had a great year and was co-champs of the conference, that's an upset. And WWS has beaten Benet like 3 orf 4 years or something like that so I am sure Benet is a little nervous. Cary had a good team and they lost to Crystal Lake South. That Nequa, Downer's North, Naperville bracket looks tough too.

How did Austin Wright do pitching wise? I haven't been hearing much about him lately but over the winter I know he was a hot draft prospect.
Any word on that?
Were the scouts out at his game?
How was Conant as a team this year?

I heard that Prairie Ridge beat Grant 6-2. Grant doesn't have any players that can give the pitcher any defense. I've seen them play and it looks like there are only 2 good solid players. Stroup and Wallsten the catcher. They are both outstanding baseball players but it takes more than a pitcher and catcher to win a game. Grant just didn't have it this year.
Hopefully they have some good sophomores that will be on varsity next year.
I did hear that the scouts were there.

What's your prediction on the McHenry/Woodstock game?

i was at the shs/chs game last night....austin pitched pretty well....he didnt have his best stuff, but he was hitting his spots with his curve early on....he was consistently hitting 90+ but sometimes got a little wild...SHS did a great job of keeping up with his fastball and waiting on the off speed....not to mention these same two teams played 9 days ago, and CHS started Austin in that game too

crackofthebat,
to answer your other two questions, i know conant had a handful of game rained out so i know they only won about 9, and lost somewhere around 15-18.....but they seem to step up their game a notch when ever they take on schaumburg so it was anybodys game yesterday.....and yes there was a few scouts behind the backstop last night

crackofthebat -
McHenry finds themselves in the tricky position of trying to save Badgley for PR, yet not looking past Woodstock. They better be careful in not looking ahead to the next game. On the other hand, if they do not pitch Badgley against PR, there is no way that they will beat them, in my opinion.

Stroup was 91 on the gun at different times in the game. His off speed stuff was what I was most impressed with yesterday. He was throwing his curve ball a bit too much. He started throwing his change up late...but by that time it was pretty much over. But I thought Kyle pitched yesterday instead of just throwing.

The McHenry game will be interesting only in that the big decision is whether or not McHenry throws Badgley or gambles to save him for the PR game Saturday. I talked to Dan Badgley and they were wrestling with whether or not to start Zach. I think they have a big risk to assess. Either way...PR seems to be in a zone right now.

IMO, you can't win game 2 if you don't win game 1. McHenry better not overlook Woodstock, i am sure they will throw that Brown kid and he's pretty good. It would be hard to beat him without their best.

Nails said it best....worry about game one first !

Okay I will bite, if you feel he threw his curve too much and didn't throw his change until too late what is it that he did to make you say he pitched well and didn't just throw? When he hit 91 was it way up in the zone for a ball.

I'm not sure that applies here. What's the point of winning game one if you are exhausting all possibilities of winning game two and moving further in the playoffs? Besides, maybe they could use Badgley an inning or two in relief today.

Late in the game he started to throw his change up and our guys had more difficulty handling the change of speed. I felt Kyle thre well but got hurt by leaving a few to many curve balls up in the zone. His change ups were down in the zone and he also had the same arm speed which made him more successful. Just my observation.

FYI....I've watched Kyle pitch since he was 11 yrs old playing for Rich Coles...Ican say that he pitched yesterday. No-one ever has doubted his god given talent...it has always been his maturity and poise on the mound. He had it yesterday. I also feel the change up is a better pitch than the curve ball especially with his velocity.

I've always thought it was difficult for guys who throw hard in high school develop change ups. If you thrown 90, a change up will most likely be 80-83, which is about an average fastball. The change speeds up many bats. It takes a lot of discipline for a kid who throws 90 to use his change effectively in a game.

quote:

I've always thought it was difficult for guys who throw hard in high school develop change ups. If you thrown 90, a change up will most likely be 80-83, which is about an average fastball. The change speeds up many bats. It takes a lot of discipline for a kid who throws 90 to use his change effectively in a game.

I couldn't agree more. The most difficult thing for a hard throwing high school pitcher to do is to develop a change up. The biggest obstacle here is there are few hitters in a high school lineup good enough to merit throwing a change up to. By throwing it to a bad hitter it speeds up his bat and gives him a chance that he otherwise wouldn't have to get a hit. I can speak from experience here. I think I threw 5 changeups my entire senior year in high school, which unfortunately hindered my development of that pitch which really caught up to me once I reached college.

In the long term throwing the change up to aid in development is a great thing, even if the situation doesn't call for it. Sometimes doing something that is good for the player in the long run is the right thing to do, even if it is a short-term sacrifice. I wish I would have had someone make me throw 10-15 changeups per game in high school, it would've saved me several lumps once I got into college.

quote:

Originally posted by LPbaseball44:
i was at the shs/chs game last night....austin pitched pretty well....he didnt have his best stuff, but he was hitting his spots with his curve early on....he was consistently hitting 90+ but sometimes got a little wild...SHS did a great job of keeping up with his fastball and waiting on the off speed....not to mention these same two teams played 9 days ago, and CHS started Austin in that game too

Which team won the earlier matchup?

quote:

Originally posted by LPbaseball44:
crackofthebat,
to answer your other two questions, i know conant had a handful of game rained out so i know they only won about 9, and lost somewhere around 15-18.....but they seem to step up their game a notch when ever they take on schaumburg so it was anybodys game yesterday.....and yes there was a few scouts behind the backstop last night

Yep, the weather this spring has certainly been a hindrance on high school baseball in the Chicago area.
As I said, I hadn't heard much on Wright as of late. I'm glad to hear they are still watching him and I wish him the best of luck.

quote:

Originally posted by RRF8:
crackofthebat -
McHenry finds themselves in the tricky position of trying to save Badgley for PR, yet not looking past Woodstock. They better be careful in not looking ahead to the next game. On the other hand, if they do not pitch Badgley against PR, there is no way that they will beat them, in my opinion.

I'm curious to see what the outcome of this game is. I think it's too close to even make a prediction. If I didn't have something I need to do, I would take a ride out and watch this game.

Ope makes a great point in speeding up kids bats. I see a ton of kids that blow fastballs by kids, then try to get fancy when they have 2 strikes and throw a change or a roller curveball and the kid gets a hit cause all he did was speed up the bat. I think kids watch too much TV and listen to some of the wrong coaches that want kids to develop and throw like 4 pitches and use them all the time just for show. If someone isn't hitting your fastball you should just keep throwing it, if he was throwing 91 the other day I'd guess he could have thrown 90% fastballs (spotted them) and dominated most HS teams.

And as far as tournament, it makes no sense to save a guy playing a team that your not sure you can beat. you'd hate to lose a game and know your best pitcher didn't pitch and you didn't give your team a chance to win. You guys are from down there so you should remember a few years ago Dundee-Crown was a #1 seed and didn't pitch their LHP (long), they threw someone else and lost the first game to Streater I want to say........can't make those mistakes.

crackofthebat,

Schaumburg won all three games against Conant this year. Austin only pitched in two of them. My son pitched against him yesterday and at the end of the first game as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Nails:
IMO, you can't win game 2 if you don't win game 1. McHenry better not overlook Woodstock, i am sure they will throw that Brown kid and he's pretty good. It would be hard to beat him without their best.

It's funny how different coaches have differing opinions on this.
You have the coaches who think they should save a better pitcher for later in a tournament.
Others believe you should use your best pitcher and get that first win.

Any idea who is winning the McHenry/Woodstock game?

I've heard that Lakes was beating Grayslake North in the 5th inning. Don't know any details.

I also heard that Lake Zurich was beat yesterday by Buffalo Grove.

quote:

Originally posted by Roy Hobbs fan:
Late in the game he started to throw his change up and our guys had more difficulty handling the change of speed. I felt Kyle thre well but got hurt by leaving a few to many curve balls up in the zone. His change ups were down in the zone and he also had the same arm speed which made him more successful. Just my observation.

From what I understand, Grant's coaches call every pitch and the pitchers can't shake them off.
How many errors were made in that game?

SHSBBFAN,
Best of luck to your son and his team on continued success!

McHenry lost and it looks like they pitched their #1. That's what happens when you overlook teams as many of you suggested they would just beat Woodstock easily and advance to play PR. It all depends on who you play but you have to win game 1. That Brown kid is tough for Woodstock as it sounds like you guys are from there so you should know. I just was at a game today Joliet played Hinsdale S. Joliet pitched their #2 because they obviously just looked at Hinsdale's ranking and didn't do much research. Hinsdale was an elite 8 team over the summer. Hinsdale's pitcher threw a great game and Joliet lost 7-0. Only when they were down 6-0 did they put in Silva, their #1. So that's another team that looked ahead, didn't do their homework, and got beat with their best guy on the bench. I'll never agree with it. Dundee Crown did it two years ago with Kenny Long.

Warren 1, Libertyville 0. Well-played pitchers duel. Warren will face Carmel on Sat.

Maine South 4
Maine West 0

Nails
I know this is a moot point now but I have to stand by my choice of holding off my ace to pitch against PR. It wasn't a case of looking past Woodstock as I think McHenry knew that Woodstock was capable of beating them. The goal is to advance to Sectional not just to last one more game. There was no way that McHenry was going to beat PR without Badgley pitching and on his best game. Now, if Woodstock beats PR with their second best pitcher, I will fully admit that I was wrong, but I don't think that is going to happen. On another note, how about the parity of the Valley Division with both the first and second place teams being knocked out in the first round?

I'm a huge Badgley fan and it comes down to the fact he couldn't throw his curve for a strike to save his life today. Those woodstock players just sat dead red late and stayed in the zone and had several base hits in the latter innings. Badge threw very few change ups in the game and it came back to bite him. Once they replaced him..the new pitcher just tried to throw it by the woodstock hitters and got burned. McHenry had the many runners on early and let Woodstock off the hook. Badge had much to work on and I know he will.

You can't blame the coaching staff for starting him. PR had better learn from McHenry's downfall about putting a team away early and pouring it on when the game is going your way. Also, CL South has plenty of offense in their line-up. Don't be surprised if South roughs up Jacobs.

That pitcher has always had problems with his curve ball, hopefully NIU will get him and help him develop it more. Nobody is going to beat PR in my opinion, they have 3 very good pitchers so you just have to hope to out him them. But you can't play them unless you beat the team in front of them, that's my point. Like I said, i'd feel dumb if i lost a game with my best players on the bench. I can see resting a guy if the team your playing is terrible but Woodstock always sneaks up on teams. CLS is tough, i knew that new coach would go in there and start giving kids chances and they have some talent. Is Gardeck available to pitch that game, he's tough on the mound.

Gardeck pitched three innings yesterday and did not look that sharp from what I heard. They needed to bring in Wilson to hold off Cary.

How bout both Downer's school's losing in the first round. There's some very good saturday matchups being set. I think Hinsdale S., Lockport is going to be very good. Lockport doesn't have too much pitching left to throw. Lyons and Fenwick will be very good, anyone know whose pitching for Fenwick that day? Gonna be a great pitching matchup regardless because I think Lyons will be going with Esposito. Benet and WWS, Benet has lost to them I think every year for the last 3 years even though they've been the higher seed each year. Ignatius, Whitney Young and Br. Rice playing a tough Andrew team. Tons of great matchups, can't wait.

My understanding is it will be Sweeney for Fenwick.

should be a great game then, two very good clubs. Anyone have any predictions, or upset picks.