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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:40 AM CDT
Trojans have experience; Wave on roll
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
MATTOON -- If this postseason baseball stuff were a science then Derrick Landrus certainly would have kept the bottled formula that worked last year.
“Hopefully, it goes a lot like last year,” said the coach of a Charleston baseball team not only won a surprising regional championship but then reached a sectional final before losing a close game to eventual IHSA Class 3A state champion Highland. “We’re in the same position with about the same record. Last year we were No. 3 seed. Now we’re No. 2. But the seeds don’t really matter.
“I think all four teams are going to be capable of winning. I don’t see how you pick a clear favorite. Mattoon is playing as well as any of us.”
If Charleston could emerge as a No. 3 seed to win a regional last year, why not a Mattoon team seeded fourth out of four this year?
Not only does the Green Wave get to play on its home field, but it has won eight of nine decisions heading into the Class 3A Mattoon Regional set to start with its 4 p.m. game against top-seeded Effingham today.
Losing only to 4A Normal since the seeding meeting, this 17-11-1 Green Wave team might have been motivated by other coaches giving a No. 4 seed to a perennially strong Big 12 Conference program.
“There hasn’t been a lot of talk about that,” Mattoon coach Mark Jackley said. “Our main concern is giving away runs. What bothers me is we’ve earned most of our runs this year and we’ve been giving away a lot of runs.”
Mattoon actually had a 10-error game in a 19-6 loss to Champaign Central but in showing its resiliency and postseason potential, the Wave avenged that defeat two days later.
Maybe strikeout pitcher Tyler Brandenburg can help take care of some things by himself when taking the mound against Effingham today.
As a senior Brandenburg has an impressive 62 strikeouts and 14 walks in 37 innings while standing 4-3 with a 2.84 ERA. The right-hander who earlier this year pitched a no-hitter is coming off last week’s shutout over Champaign Centennial.
“The thing about Tyler that’s been better this year has been his control,” Jackley said. “He isn’t walking batters this year.”
Effingham, 24-5, features 6-foot-5 junior pitcher Chad Green.
“I would expect them to throw Chad Green,” Jackley said. “I wouldn’t expect them to throw their No. 2 pitcher. I think their pitching will be comparable to our pitcher.”
In trying to fix those defensive deficiencies, Mattoon at times was limited trying to take ground balls during a raining spring canceling games as well as practices.
“It’s been a different spring starting with thinking we had our cross-county rival beaten and then not getting to finish it,” Jackley said.
That season opener in which darkness suspended a game with Mattoon leading Charleston 7-4 was never completed.
If the Coles County rivals are to play each other, it would be in a regional championship game, a rematch in which Charleston edged Mattoon last year.
Charleston, 22-10 after losing its last two regular season games, begins this postseason against Taylorville, 16-13.
“Half our guys were here for last year’s run,” Landrus said. “They know what it takes. We lost the last couple of games but that doesn’t have an effect now. You have to play well for seven innings. That’s all you have to do.”
Likely to start on the mound for the Trojans is junior Taylor Nead, who is 5-4 with a 2.39 ERA.
Taylorville is to start senior James Southworth, who is 9-5 with a 3.35.
“We’ve had our moments, I guess you could say,” Taylorville coach Tim Kratochvil said. “We have a young ballclub that has come together and at regional time anything can happen.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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