Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:40 AM CDT
Four area teams remain in Class 1A/2A baseball and softball sectionals
By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
Four area teams are set to play in their respective sectionals in baseball and softball in Class 1A and 2A. The two baseball teams, Neoga and Okaw Valley, are relative newcomers to the IHSA Class 1A sectional at Danville Stadium, while the two softball teams, Cumberland in Class 1A and Casey-Westfield in Class 2A, have plenty of sectional experience.
Neoga, 22-8, is to face Salt Fork, a team that is 17-6-1, at 5 p.m. today at Danville Stadium, while Okaw Valley, 18-12, is to play Tuscola, 16-8 at 5 p.m. Thursday also at Danville Stadium. The two winners are to play for the sectional championship at 1 p.m., with the winner advancing to the Elite Eight and the super-sectional at 6 p.m. Monday against the winner of the Bloomington Sectional at Illinois Wesleyan University. Neoga is making its second sectional appearance, having won the regional in 2006. Okaw Valley is making its first sectional appearance although the consolidated schools of Bethany and Findlay both won a regional in 1995 and 1985, respectively.
In softball, the second-ranked team in Class 1A, Cumberland, is a team that is 27-1 and a school that has won nine regional titles, including four consecutive. The Lady Pirates are to face 18-11 Woodlawn at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Oblong. In Class 2A, Casey-Westfield, winner of 26 straight regional championships and the No. 21 team, enters Thursday sectional semifinal game against Greenville with a record of 21-12. The Lady Warriors are to play Greenville at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Newton.
The winner of the Cumberland-Woodlawn game is to play the victor of the Odin-Altamont game for the sectional championship at 11 a.m. Saturday with the sectional winner advancing to the Southern Illinois University Super-Sectional vs. the winner of the Trico Sectional.
The winner of the Casey-Greenville game is to play the victor of the Flora-Teutopolis contest at 11 a.m. Saturday at Newton with the winner advancing to the Eastern Illinois University Super-Sectional against the winner of the Paxton-Buckley-Loda Sectional.
Baseball
Okaw Valley enters the sectional semifinal game on a roll, having won nine straight. In fact the Timberwolves, coached by Andrew Hagerman, have won 16 of their last 19 contests.
After winning the regional championship 6-5 over Meridian at Assumption in the Central A&M Regional, the team received a fire truck escort around Bethany. The winning run scored in the fifth inning as Dallas Kirkwood scored on a passed ball to give the Timberwolves a 6-0 lead. The Hawks scored three in the fifth and two in the sixth to climb to within one.
“The big key to our success has been that Aaron Fructhl (6-0) had not been able to pitch for the better part of the last two years because of injuries,” said Hagerman. “Fuchtl, along with Seth Calhoun, are our aces. Adding another pitcher does so much for the baseball team. We can compete more often and can win the tougher games by spreading out our rotation. It opened up the door for us and gave us a lot of confidence.”
Tuscola, a team that finished fourth in Class 1A last year with a 28-9 record, has several players back from that team including senior Kurtis Kinyoun, who is hitting .524 with five home runs and 43 runs batted in. Auste Shelmadine is another player back. He is batting .429 with 15 stolen bases and 17 RBIs.
“I am sure Tuscola has the big game experience,” said Hagerman. “I know they have picked up a lot of wins this year and I am sure it won’t be easy. There are no bad teams left.”
Fruchtl, Kirkwood and Tim Suddarth are all batting over .400 for the Timberwvolves at .417, .419 and .456 respectively.
“Kyle Blakey has improved his batting average almost .100 in three weeks and Fruchtl, Kirkwood and Suddarth are all doing a nice job. Freshman Alex Corrington is hitting over .350. We have a lot of guys that can beat you. We may not have as much power as some teams, but we hit well, 1-9 in the lineup.”
Okaw Valley, the No. 2 seed in the regional, has had Seth Calhoun hit three grand slams in two regional tournament games, including one in the second inning of the championship to give them an early 4-0 lead.
Calhoun and Josh McLain have four home runs each for Okaw Valley, a team still competing for the Little Okaw Valley Conference crown (12-3).
Fruchtl is the top pitcher with 37 strikeouts in 34 innings, while Calhoun is 5-2 with three saves with 56 strikeouts and 17 walks in 52 innings.
“We have not been walking people as much or committing as many errors,” said Hagerman. “We are limiting those two things and that is what we talked about at the start of the season.
“We are excited to play in Danville Stadium (built in 1946),” said Hagerman. “We are not intimidated and not nervous. They just want to keep playing baseball and are in the right mindset to hopefully win some more games.”
Neoga is facing a team that stopped Danville Schlarman’s run of four straight regional titles. The Storm has won five regional titles, including one in 2007. Salt Fork won its won regional final 6-3.
The Storm is led by Illinois State bound J.D. Learnard, who is 9-2 on the mound. Brad Collins is the top offensive player with a .478 average with six home runs and 30 runs batted in. Joel Learnard is batting .455 while J.D. Learnard is batting .457.
The Indians, coached by Ted Kerner, were 8-7 in the fall season.
“I was really just hoping to be above .500 and get going in the regional and get on a roll and have a shot at winning the regional title,” said Kerner. “Some of the seniors have really improved statistically. Lucas Vonderheide and Tyler Szatkowki are to of them. Shay Albert has really improved and Dalton McFarland has really come into his own a little bit as a sophomore. He is maturing. He could always hit the ball, but now he is hitting the ball hard. The younger kids have stepped up and thrown the ball well in Bryn Price, Gage McKimmy and Jake Massengill. Those three get the bulk of the work when Jared Massengill (9-0 with a 1.75 earned run average) isn’t pitching.”
Kerner said he realized the team could be pretty good after coming back against St. Elmo after trailing 6-0 to win and the next night beat Casey-Westfield.
“Those two games were the start of a six-game winning streak and we started off 8-1,” said Kerner. “We beat Effingham which was a good win for us. If we can throw strikes and catch the ball we have a chance to win. Our offense has been pretty consistent.”
Softball
Cumberland, coached by Dave Shawver, has won 22 straight games and is within one win of tying the 28-8 team of 1999 coached by Lori Bohannan.
The Lady Pirates’ only loss was to the top ranked team in Class 3A Mattoon in a 5-3 eight inning contest in April. Middle Tennessee State-bound Janele Robinson has thrown two straight perfect games in regional action and is 15-1 in the pitching circle. Alison Kimble is 8-0 and Shana Marti is 3-0.
"I feel like she is pitching right we weant her to be," said Shawver of Robinson. "She is coming off two perfect games. You cant' expect that everytime out. The defense has been playing very well also and is tournament ready. I hope they can continu to perform the way they have."
Offensively, the Lady Pirates are led by Casey Sowers with a .517 average, while Megan Woolever is at .437 and Macy Shupe at 4.18 along with Kimble at .409.
"Offensivley, we have been executing pretty well," said Shawver. "We could use a few more key hits in certain situations. Timely hitting is something we have to continue to improve on. People are not going to give you runs. It takes execution and to come up with timely hits in big situations."
Shawver is in his first year with Cumberland after taking three years off after coaching Casey from 2000-2005, going 145-25 with three state appearances, including the 2000 state title.
Woodlawn, a member of the Midland Trail Conference that has an enrollment of 210, is making its fourth sectional appearance and second straight. The Lady Cardinals are led in the pitching circle by sophomore Bria McKinzie, who is 18-10 with a 1.92 earned run average with 125 strikeouts in 171 and a third innings.
Woodlawn bats .275 as a team and has one player over .300 in sophomore Kinzie Verhines, who is batting .304. The Lady Cardinals have three between .295 and 2.97 with sophomore Whitney Lowery batting .297 with a team-leading 27 runs batted in and three triples. McKinzie bats .296, while senior Lyndsey Scott bats 295. The team has stolen 88 bases with junior Taylor Sprehe leading the way with 18.
"I don't know anything about Woodlawn other than they won a regional," said Shawver. "You don't win a regional by not being a good team. It is the biggest game of the year for us and we are perparing for it that way."
Casey, coached by Dara (Throneburg) Updegraff, a former Casey standout, has won six of its last seven games. The Lady Warriors pitcher Heather Austin is 16-7 and has thrown two no-hitters as well as 17 innings with 26 strikeouts in the 2-0 regional semifinal win over Paris. Austin has more than 200 strikeouts.
Mackenzie Connelly and Kara Repp are batting over .400 for the Lady Warriors, while Austin is above .350.
Greenville has an enrollment of 579 and competes in the South Central Conference East Division. It is the third regional title for the Lady Comets, who have gone 69-18 in the last three years (not including this season) under Ivan Estevez. The last regional title for Greenville was in 2002.
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
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