The following are posts related to specific shoots. And other things that I cannot stop myself from writing about.
Before last night’s historic beatdown of Fenwick, DePaul Prep honored its senior football players before their last regular season football game.
At halftime, DePaul honored its Cross County team seniors as well.
Here are photos from the introductions.
The biggest win in school history for DePaul Prep? It’s not Gordon Tech’s State Championship in 1980 but it sure feels like the biggest win for the new DePaul Prep Rams in ten years of being DePaul Prep.
The DePaul Prep Rams (4-4, 1-1 in CCL/ESCC Red) beat the Fenwick Friars (4-4, 1-1 in CCL/ESCC Orange) 44 to 43 in double overtime Friday night at DePaul Prep.
In talking to some fans before the game, I asked, “How is Fenwick?’
“It’s Fenwick, but it not Fenwick Fenwick,” I was told.
The Rams had a chance. And they believed. What’s new about this year is that they can score. They have big-play players. And they score a lot. In their last five games, they have scored 38, 28, 36, 35 and 44 points. I don’t know what Rams’ junior quarterback Fernando “JuJu” Rodriguez did over the summer but whatever it is, somebody should bottle it. His play at quarterback has improved 100%. His throws are on time and on target and the Rams are scoring.
Rams’ senior running back Titus Bautista provides the perfect counter-punch to Rodriguez big arm. Recievers Bradon Peevy, Michael Bloom and Jack West catch the ball and they are only juniors.
Even so, the Rams struggled in the first quarter playing the entire quarter in their own end. They gave up two early field goals and a touchdown falling behind 12-0. But actually it didn’t feel bad. The Rams can score quick and that they did.
On the first play of the second quarter, a perfectly executed screen pass to Bautista flipped the field position bringing the Rams from deep in their own end to the Fenwick redzone. A couple play later it was 12-7.
After having given up a field goal to the Friars with 6:14 to go in the fourth, the Rams trailed 23-29. They took over at their own 21 after Michael Bloom’s kickoff return. With third down and five on their own 26, a quick hitch from Fernandez to junior wide receiver Braden Peevy, then a lateral out to Bautista who sprinted out of the backfield and down the sideline to Fenwick’s 40 yard-line.
A fourth and five scramble by Rodriguez down to the 28-yard line kept the Rams alive. A couple plays later, another fourth down, still from the 28-yard line. This is the Rams’ shot. After coming so close against Providence, after giving late scores against Marian Catholic and being unable to score on a game ending driving, could the Rams make it happen? After years of incremental improvements and confidence building, could this be the hump the Rams get over?
With 4th and 10 and the game, the season and the future on the line, they stood there looking to the sideline for the play. The play clock ticked down; the Rams took the play and lined up. With Rams’ head coach Mike Passarella running down the sideline calling for a time out, the side judge blows his whistle as the Rams snap the ball.
Time out.
Back out on the field. 4th and 10 from the 28. The ball placed on the far hash mark. Senior wide receiver Michael Bloom split out to Rodriguez’s left. Junior Bradon Peevy to his right. Junior running back Nick Martinez in the slot left next to Bloom, junior Jack West in the wideside slot next to Peevy.
Will we look back on this play as the turning point for the football program, or will the losing continue?
Martinez goes in motion to wide side. Bloom launches up field and dips in toward the post, then bolts straight up the sideline past the Fenwick corner like he was standing still.
The offensive line pushes the four Fenwick pass rushers outside and Rodriguez moves up in the pocket. Fenwick’s stud defensive tackle Nate Marshall breaks back up the middle to meet JuJu and stop the pass. Rodriguez lets it fly. Bloom slows up to get the ball. He catches the game tying touchdown in the endzone just before the Fenwick corner can break up the pass.
Huge. Great call. Clutch throw. Tremendous catch. Touchdown Rams!
The game is tied.
Of course, Fenwick gets a tremendous push up the middle and blocks the Rams extra point. Still tied with 2:03 to play.
Fenwick moves the ball into DePaul Prep territory and with two seconds on the clock, the Friars line up for a 40-yard field goal.
No good. To overtime we go all tied at 29.
Rams have it first from the 10 yard-line in the South end. They score, adding a PAT. Rams 36, Friars 29.
Now the Friars. They score adding a PAT. Double overtime. Rams 36, Friars 36.
Now the Friars have it again. They score adding the PAT. Friars 43, Rams 36.
I never doubted the Rams would score again. They had come too far. But how long could this go on? Titus Bautista around the right end on the first play. Friars 43, Rams 42.
Mike Passarella never hesitated. As soon as I looked back toward the sideline, after Bautista scored, Passarella was raising two fingers. They were going for two points to win the game.
Fenwick called a time out to talk it over.
Two-point conversion attempt from the 3. Peevy split right. Bloom split left. Three backs in the backfield with Rodriguez. Shot gun snap to Rodriguez who gets immediate pressure from his left. Peevy ducks inside into double coverage then slips back toward the sideline. Rodriguez, with a man on him, throws to Peevy breaking to the sideline. TOUCHDOWN. (2-point conversion really.) Rams win. Rams win!
The DePaul Prep Rams defeated Fenwick 44-43 drawing even on the year at 4 wins and 4 losses and chance to make the playoff with a win at DeLaSalle next Friday.
A huge win for a DePaul Prep Rams football team that hasn’t had much to celebrate in recent years. Bill Jeske didn’t know how long it has been since the Rams beat Fenwick. 20 years maybe. Former athletic director Paul Chabura confirmed that the last time DePaul Prep/Gordon Tech beat Fenwick was in 2000 in a Prep Bowl playoff.
“Final was 24-6. Scott Baum was the coach. The Rams came close a few times but that was the last win,” Chabura wrote.
The Rams have improved no doubt. The culture is back. The program is bursting at the seams. They just needed that turn the corner win.
The skies parted literally and figuratively for DePaul Prep football Friday with a huge signature Catholic League crossover win against the Fenwick Friars.
I guess we will have to see if it is the turning point it feels like.
Watch the game for yourself on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WE0YCfXubw
The DePaul Prep volleyball team handled Latin in two sets at Thursday’s Senior night at DePaul Prep.
A huge crowd packed the Tom Winiecki Gym where seniors Charlotte Collins, Maeve Hudson, Haley Pitcock, Maggie Edmonds and Jessica Meier were honored and escorted into the gym by their parents before the match.
The seniors all started the game jumping out to an early lead on the Latin Romans never to look back. The Rams lead the Romans in both sets.
The Rams move on to this weekend’s Lake Forest Invitation and come home next Tuesday for a big match against GCAC rival DeLaSalle. DeSalle has the number one seed in the St. Ignatius sectional in the upcoming IHSA 3A volleyball playoffs.
So much fight in Amundsen, one would never know they trained by four touchdowns at the end.
A very exciting back-and-forth game with plenty of offense. Two very nice passes, catches and YAC by Braden Peevy. The Rams offense is coming together nicely in recent games. When the defense catches up, watch out.
It was my first trip to Chicago Heights and Marian Catholic. They have a very nice field but the lights. Well that’s a whole different story. It was probably the worst of any high school that I can recall.
The Marian Catholic people were wonderful. I nice talk with former mens basketball coach Mike Taylor. It’s real loss for basketball that Coach Taylor is not coaching anymore. He elevated Marian to a powerhouse program.
The DePaul Prep Rams varsity volleyball team defeated St. Laurence in three sets on Thursday. Very high level volleyball and teacher appreciation night as well.
Coach Caroline Gajzler has her Rams at 14-5 with about three weeks until the IHSA state tournament and 11 matches still to play, the Rams look to finish strong. The move to 3A and into the St. Ignatius sectional for the playoffs will be a challenge for the Rams. I am getting better at shooting volleyball hopefully in time for a deep playoff run by DePaul Prep.
Wouldn’t it be great to shoot a state volleyball final! Make it happen Rams.
(And I just love the shot of Haley Pitcock is swooning. She said photos of the bench would be the best. She was totally right!)
With 38 seconds left in the first half from the Lion 45 yard-line and the score DePaul Prep 17, Leo 14, the Rams called a play they had practiced all week and that they intended to open the game with. The old “hooking ladder.” A hook by the wide out and a lateral pass to the running back out of the backfield and up the sideline to the end zone.
It worked to perfection. The finest execution of the play that I have seen in my 100 years of watching football.
Rams’ junior quarterback Fernando “JuJu” Rodriguez tossed a quick short pass, a hook, to junior wide receiver wide receiver Nicholas Hathcoat drawing up the Leo free safety. Hathcoat gathered it in, and with a Leo defender draped all over him, pitched the ball to senior running back Titus Bautista sprinting out of the backfield. Bautista grabbed the perfectly placed pitch at full speed and dashed up the sideline. No one had any chance at all to catch him.
Leo was done after that. They had nothing left for the second half. Beaten physically and mentally, the game spiraled into penalty after penalty after penalty.
Rams 38, Lions 14.
DePaul Prep improves to 2-2 on the year and will face No. 14 ranked Providence at home next Friday.
The Lane Tech Champions (0-1, 0-0) opened the season with an unusual 11:00 a.m. home game against Glenbrook North Spartans (1-0, 0-0) falling short 29-0. They were just a little out of sorts from the early start. The strong wind blowing directly off Addison Street would be a factor all day.
A GBN possession midway through the second quarter would prove something of a turning point. With the Champions down 8-0 after giving up an early touchdown and a safety, GBN drove down the field running in a touchdown only to have it called back on a holding penalty.
On the next pay, another offensive holding penalty. First down and goal from the 28 for GBN. The play after that, a sack.
On second and goal from the 39, GBN got a four-yard gain on the ground.
Third and goal on the 35, the Spartans’ 6’6”, 210 pounds tight end and Northwestern commit, Patrick Schaller, got free in the middle of the field for a 27 yard catch down to the 12.
On the next play, the Spartans’ quarterback scored on a fourth down keeper around the left end from 12 yards out.
Despite having GBN backed up 2nd and goal at the 39-yard line, the Champions could not hold. It was just a kick in the head. The game was different after that.
GBN added two more scores in the second half. The Champions could not get another going on offence.
After the game, Lane Tech head coach Dedrick Dewalt was not pleased.
“It’s been a tough week. We only practiced one day this week. We just couldn’t get into rhythm. That’s still no excuse. When we did get some rhythm, we turned the ball over. High snap over the quarterback, takes us twenty yards back. Uncharacteristic mistakes that my football team normally doesn’t have,” Dewalt said.
“We put the onus on our coaches too. We’ve got to put the kids in a position to be successful. I don’t feel as a coaching staff we did that today. In addition to the kids making mistakes, we did not do our best as a coaching staff. That falls on me. The second and forty should have been a different defense called.”
Last year’s Wing T offense with its three yards and a cloud of dust ball control is mostly gone. Coming out of the huddle, the Champions fall into it at the line of scrimmage but they eventually shift out of it into a spread shotgun and at times even a pistol offence.
“We’ve got to put some drives together and score some points,” Dewalt continued. That’s what was lacking at Lane Stadium late Saturday morning. The Champions had good runs and completed passed and moved the ball in the first half. They just couldn’t string them together into a scoring drive.
Dewalt was probably too hard on himself accepting the blame for forces out his control as coaches do. Nevertheless, the Champions have work to do. There is a core of champions there. They need to find a rhythm. Dewalt is just the conductor for such a job.
Next week Thornton Fractional South comes to Lane Stadium to face Lane. Legendary coach Bob Padjen brings his Red Wolves to Lane Stadium after having lost to Hammond Central 33-6.
The Chicago Catholic League/East Suburban Catholic Conference reshuffled the divisions this year. DeLaSalle and Marian Catholic were moved from the Purple Division into the Red Division. I wanted to get a look at DeLaSalle who I haven’t seen in a couple years so I can see what the Red will be dealing with.
And of course I wanted to see St. Viator—the mighty mighty Lions! My beloved alma matter.
I will spare you the blow-by-blow. Let’s just say it was sloppy first half for both teams. DeLaSalle lead 14-7 at the half.
The second have was better but St. Viator’s play calling left something to be desired. In the fourth quarter the Lions started running between the tackles and finally met with some success. St. Viator scored.
St. Viator scored again but missed the extra point. 20-14 Lions.
With 9:03 left in the 4th, DeLaSalle’s talented sophomore quarterback scored on a keeper from the five. The extra point was good. 21-10 DeLaSalle.
Cooper Kmet, Cole’s younger brother, put together a nice drive for the St. Viator moving the Lions down to the DeLaSalle 23 yard line. St. Viator’s Gabe Glodz put in a 30 yard field goal with 3:28 to play to lift the Lions to a 23-21.
The Meteors had the ball and chance to will. Lewis took them down the field moving backwards and forwards. A long pass to the goal line and a keeper for the touchdown. Then a two-point conversion and the Lions fell to the Meteors 29-23.
DeLaSalle has loads of talent. The Red is well advised to take notice.
The match was basically as close as it could get. The DePaul Prep Rams fell in three sets to IC Catholic Prep by the closest of margins, 25 to 23 in the final set at DePaul Prep’s Tom Winiecki Gym.
A big crowd in DePaul Prep’s Tom Winiecki Gym welcomed the return of high level volleyball to the Northside.
Should be a great season.
It’s gonna be a helluva August.
I basically took July off from photos and sports writing; a much-needed break. It began to feel like a job.
I’m going to LA on August 1st for an overdue vacation, then the football season starts. I am gonna be taking photos and writing again. I am very jazzed about that.
I have wanted to go to Los Angeles for a long time. I was there in 1974 as a boy. I thought it was so cool. My dad bought a map of the stars homes and we drove around Beverly Hills. We drove past Lucille Ball’s house. When we came upon Paul Newman’s house down the street, there he was standing on the sidewalk out front in a white t-shirt drinking a Budweiser talking to a man I assumed was his neighbor.
My sister shrieked, “Paul.” She was all about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at that time.
He looked up, smiled and waved. My dad kept driving.
How cool was that?
Well that was 50 years ago. Paul is gone, God rest his soul. But there must be others like that to see. Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, somebody like that.
My daughter Mary is going with me. She is totally into the trip but prefers to visit the reality TV locations like Sur restaurant from Vanderpump Rules. That’s fine. Reality TV is the one thing that she doesn’t mind me being around for, and the Cubs too. We religiously watched all the 2016 playoff games together.
I have never looked forward to a vacation as much as I have this one. I just want to go to LA and look around. I want actually see the places whose names I have been hearing my whole life. The San Fernando Valley, Malibu, Compton, Sunset Strip, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Orange County, Long Beach, etc.
Then when I get back football season starts. I am looking forward to covering the area teams again. Amundsen should be good again. Lane will be good. I really enjoyed Lane coach Dedrick DeWalt’s old school double wing offense last season.
DePaul Prep will give it another try. That school has become the premier Catholic School high school on the Northside. It’s up to about 1100 students. Mary Dempsey and her team are opening a new classroom building when school starts. It’s only a matter of time before Coach Mike Passarella’s Rams move up divisions and take over the CCL/ESCC the way Tom Kleinschmidt’s basketball teams have done with multiple state final appearances and a state championship.
I am gonna get out to as many St. Viator football games as I can as well. My brother Steve is not coaching football this season and promised to come in for a game. My brother Dan, Fr. Dan Lydon, CSV, for those non-family members out there, is the president of the school so I suppose I should show them some love. There was a time when St. Viator won the ESCC every year. But that was like forty years ago now. Dan and the St. Viator staff have plans to build an on-campus stadium. That will make a big difference for the school and the football program.
Once football runs its course, we are right into basketball. The Battle of the Bridge will be here before one knows it. That’s when the real funs begins. It should be a great new high school basketball season.
Great time to be alive.
My good friend Kevin Besetzny’s lovely wife Linda threw him a wonderful birthday party on Sunday at the home in Park Ridge. Congratulations to one of my oldest friends. I have known him since 1982 when I first met him in Communications class at Loyola.
It was great to see Kevin, Linda, Frank, Debbie, Lisa, Renato, Vanessa, Kevin’s parents.
See you next year!
The Romeoville Live Event is not at Romeoville High School. It’s at the Romeoville Athletics and Events Center, a large sports facility that normally hosts basketball and indoor soccer leagues. It’s big. The soccer field has six basketball courts assembled on top of the field turf.
The games themselves are abbreviated versions of a high school game. Two halves of fifteen minutes. Few foul shots. Not a whole lot of defense. These “Live” events allow college coaches a chance to see high school players in person. They afford the casual fan a chance to see the skills of individual players. To see how teams play together at this early part of the year. To check out the new players on a team. Plus, its basketball when there is not a whole lot else going on.
I couldn’t catch many games, some late games Friday and some early games Saturday. I managed to see some teams I cover: Lane, DePaul, Evanston and Simeon. Also, Sean Connor’s Antioch Sequoits—can’t miss them.
Lane was handled in the first game I saw by a West Aurora team that was a revelation to me. I have study up on them. Very talented.
The Champions rallied for a solid win over Oak Park/River Forest. In between those games was Antioch v. Evanston. Sean Connor’s mythical swamp creatures were depleted by injuries and players out playing baseball. They struggled a little moving the ball but plenty of fight in the Sequoits. Sean will have them ready to compete up there near the border.
Evanston looked athletic but these are not the Wildkits of recent years. Mike Ellis will coach ‘em good and have them ready to make trouble in the Central Suburban South.
I really wanted to see DePaul Prep v. St. Laurence on Friday afternoon but that was not in cards. This morning the Rams would face Hyde Park and Oswego East. We would get a good look at the Rams against stiff competition. They did not disappoint.
In typical Tom Kleinschmidt fashion, the Rams built to a small lead on Hyde Park midway through the first half and stayed away despite a furious full court press with four minutes left in the game. Rams 57, Thunderbirds 39.
The Oswego East Wolves would be the early test for this year’s Rams. Oswego East upset Joliet West in last season’s 4A Sectional final only to lose a close game to eventual 4A State Champ Moline in the super-sectional. This wasn’t last year’s team but some key pieces are still there.
The Rams got behind early and just looked out of sync. Would this be end of the streak?
No. Midway through the first half, the Rams put together a 12-0 run and managed to carry the up and down eight point lead to a 48-40 victory. Sophomore forward LaShaun Porter is filling in nicely for the departed Payton Kamin and the injured Jonas Johnson.
I also got a chance to catch up with Dominic Scianna from CPS Athletics and St. Laurance assistant coach Billy Judge. So that was good.
With these two Live events behind me, I guess it is football season now.
Some think Memorial Day, Labor Day, Fourth of July are the best part of the summer. The truth is the best weekend of the summer is the Riverside-Brookfield Summer Shootout.
The 20th Annual Summer Shootout is the premiere summer “Live Period” event in the Chicago area. R-B coach Mike Reingruber and his staff put run a superb event, a well-oiled machine. Eighty high school teams from the area including two from the St. Louis area. The facilities make it easy to watch two games at a time; even the food is good.
It’s a little early to start writing about what teams are going to be the top going into the 23-24 season. The R-B is more about getting a look at emerging players and how teams have changed.
Whitney Young v. East St. Louis. The first game I saw was Whitney Young v. East St. Louis. The Dolphins reloaded and are led by junior forward Antonio Munoz who looked in fine form. Junior point guard Damajay Richardson impressed with some nice moves followed by long jumpers.
Lane Tech v. O’Fallon. Lane Tech v. Downers Grove South. Lane struggled in the first half against O’Fallon but the shots started to fall in the second half. The Champions definitely missed Dalton Scantlebury who did not play. On Friday, the Champions fell to O’Fallon 69-43. They rallied but lost in overtime to Downers Grove South 62-60.
Kenwood v. Oswego East. These are two really good teams. Kenwood got even better in recent days by landing Rivals #43 ranked player in the nation Davion Hannah. At least one report says Hannah is not fully committed to attending Kenwood. Nevertheless, he played for Kenwood today. Kenwood handled Oswego East 67-54 and then Rolling Meadows 77-56. Kenwood looks like the top Chicago Public League, at the R-B, in June.
Oswego East went on to top St. Charles East 68-48.
Simeon v. Marist. Last year’s number one area team, Simeon has a new coach and a whole to look. The Rubin brothers and hugely talented point guard Jalen Griffith have graduated. The Wolverines are smaller but very quick. Senior Rashad Mckinnie is back and played well today. So did senior point guard Jashon Liggett.
DePaul Prep v. Lindbloom. DePaul Prep v. Hillcrest. The Rams come into the R-B newly crowned IHSA 2A champions having graduated their leader Maurice Thomas and lost starting forward Payton Kamin to a prep school transfer, plus standout junior Jonas Johnson is out with an injury. Who was going to fill in? Rams’ junior guard Rob Walls stepped right in. So did sophomore RaShaun Porter. Despite being 2A State Champions, the Rams finished seventh in the Chicago Catholic League Blue with a 6-7 record.
Those who follow the Rams closely will recall that injuries deprived the Rams of two of their best players, Jaylan McElroy and Payton Kamin, for the bulk of conference play. The Rams look to return to top form and will compete for the top of the Chicago Catholic League Blue.
The Rams move up to 3A this year because of the schools ballooning enrollment, either that or the IHSA success factor having been to the State Finals three times in four tries including one championship. DePaul Prep expects an incoming freshman class of 315.
DeLaSalle v. Lyons Township. On Saturday, I wanted to see what Gary DeCesare was doing with his Meteors. They are big and athletic and seem to have picked up where they left off atop the Chicago Catholic League White standings.
St. Lawrence v. Schaumburg. Next over to the Field House to check out the second half of the St. Lawrence Vikings against Schaumburg’s Saxons. The Vikings expect to challenge the Meteors in the CCL White. Today, Byron Burt’s Vikings were led by former St. Rita head coach and now St. Lawrence assistant, Roshawn Russell. Coming with Russell from St. Rita was Nojus Indrusaitis. Nojus is the second ranked Illinois in Prep Hoops in the class of 2024. St. Lawrence is going to be very good and looked every bit the part against a good Schaumburg squad.
St. Ignatius v. Homewood-Flossmoor. It was a bit of an early day for me at the R-B, so this would be my last game of the day. I managed a quick word with the leader of the Pack, St. Ignatius coach Matt Martin. The Pack were a little depleted at this R-B with some players out injured and with others unavailable. Knowing that going in, I was struck by how quick the new group of wolves played. Quick up and down the court and moving the back around for the open shot.
The R-B always leaves one wanting more.
The DePaul Prep Rams took on the Notre Dame Raider (Quincy) in the IHSA 2A Third Place game at the Peoria Chiefs’ Dozer Park. Unfortunately, the Rams came up on the short of end of the crappy scoreboard the Dozer. 7-2.
Even so, it was great experience. It was a little surprise how few members of the press covered the finals. No one except me from Chicago and guy from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Garen Vartanian, his story is here: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/columbia-rolls-state-championship-game-230351543.html. It appeared in the Post Dispatch first but its behind a pay wall now). There were a couple guys from Shaw Media covering the 1A games. Maybe it’s just the lack of sports coverage in general or maybe it’s just that high school baseball does not generate a lot of interest.
Nevertheless, it did happened. My photos will prove it. Here are the photos from the third place game.
My last event of the school year. God willing I will be back in the fall.
A preview of this week’s article in Inside Publication’s Booster.
By Jack Lydon
The DePaul Prep Rams ran into Columbia and its star pitcher Dominic Voegele in Peoria on Friday afternoon losing 9-0 in IHSA 2A baseball semi-final. The powerful Rams lineup could barely touch him. When then they did, bad breaks killed a couple potential rallies.
Columbia got to the Rams’ ace Dylan Kaminski with a couple early runs. Dylan kept it close but Columbia broke it open for a six-run sixth inning.
Dominic (Dom) Voegele, was the story. It was a pitching masterpiece. He turned off the red-hot Rams offense like a switch. 92 pitches and 66 strikes. That’s pretty good. He was on the plate and keeping the ball down. I got a text message from a friend watching on the internet, “his slider is pretty good.”
“I thought I pitched well enough to win. And then Brennan [Weik] calling the game back there really help. The defense making plays and the bats played a huge roll today,” Dom Voegele said in understated fashion after the game.
The plan the whole game was to “throw strikes make them hit it, let the defense make plays and keep the pitch count as low as possible.
I was throwing “the normal four-seam fast ball was working today. I threw a lot more sliders today that usual. Then get the curveball over with a first pitch strike. And the change-up to the lefties,” continued Voegele.
The Columbia Eagles were in this game last year but Voegele didn’t pitch that game. The Eagles lost that game 4-1 to the winner of Fridays other semi-final game, Joliet Catholic.
“Being here last year and going through the routines, and coming to the field, I don’t think we had the shock and awe of it this season. We knew what to expect. We had a bunch of the guys from last year’s team back this year. Having that experience is definitely an advantage,” said Eagles head coach O’Donnell.
It’s not like the Rams had no chance. Rams’ senior right-hander Dylan Kaminski was getting people out. Five and two thirds with nine strike outs. When he wasn’t striking batters out, they were getting hits, ten in all. Despite the hits, Kaminski limited the damage to three runs in five innings.
In the bottom of the third, DePaul’s Cameron Klein lead off with at single. Carter Levine reached on an error. No one out and the Rams in business. Levine stole second. Addison Latke struck out and now the top of the order. AJ Garcia crushed a line drive to the first baseman Drake Whittenbrink who quickly doubled up Levine off second.
“Drake was in a little bit. That play might have been a little different if we had moved him back. Baseball is a pretty funny game sometimes. We were bailed out with some pretty solid defense,” said O’Donnell.
“That’s a good team. We knew they were going to throw Dom. We were just hoping we could put some good balls in play. We hit the ball hard; we hit the ball well. We had some good at bats. They just didn’t fall. Congratulations to Columbia. We wish them nothing but the best,” Rams’ head coach Sam Colon said.
“I don’t think we were that far off today. The ball just did not roll our way a couple times. Our guys came out and competed. They showed pride for the school and our community. They did all they could. They left it all out there. For sure,” Colon continued.
“I don’t think the scene gets to them. They realize [now] that it takes a little bit more focus than they might have thought to continue to put good bats on balls against Dom. He throw really, really well. He threw all his pitches for strikes. It was really hard to get into a rhythm offensively. We did get some runners on. It felt like we were just a double away from getting right back into this one. AJ hit a hard a sharp line drive and we get doubled off. If the ball is over his head there and it’s a three, two game at that point.”
“A lot could have changed in baseball right there.”
That’s what happens in high school baseball. One runs into a great pitcher and in a one game series, the season is over. The Rams move on to face Quincy Notre Dame (35-2, 8-0) in the third-place game. Senior pitcher Robert Rivera will take the mound for the Rams.
The DePaul Prep Rams (23-14, 8-8) landed in Rockford for the IHSA 2A baseball super-sectional against the Byron Tigers. The convincing 13-3 win sends the Rams to the State Finals in Peoria this coming weekend.
Before, during and after the game, the Rams were loose. Didn’t seem like a super-sectional. Just like another game. Just fun to play baseball. Not so much for Sam Colon, the Rams’ first-year manager. His normal easy going demeanor seemed a bit more focused, serious, businesslike.
And land on the Byron Tigers the Rams did with four runs in the bottom of the first inning. Byron rallied with three in the top of the second. That’s about as good as they had. The Rams just put it on them after that. Three in the bottom of the second. Another in the fourth. Three more in the fifth and two in the bottom of the sixth for a walk off ten run slaughter rule victory.
Senior pitcher, the always focused and businesslike Robert Rivera pitched well. Rivera struggled in the top of the second. A balk with nobody out and men on first and third scored the Tigers’ A. Lorenz from third.
“I just thought shake it off. Being the pitcher on the mound, you’re the leader. I have hold my composure and show everyone it’s not going to phase me. Even letting in those three runs, I knew I could fight back,” Rams’ pitcher Robert Rivera said.
“I changed up my mechanics. I went to stay closed longer. I started leaning more toward the plate. It helped me control my curveball. It really upped my [velocity] on my fastball too.”
The three runs in the top of the second were the only runs he would allow.
At bat, the whole team contributed--total team victory. Michigan commit and the fastest man on the field, AJ Garcia had a hit, a stolen base and two walks scoring three runs. Vance Kurakowa had a hit and run scored. Catcher Oliver Vigerust was hit by a pitch, had a hit and a base-on-balls. First baseman Kevin O’Connor had a huge game with three hits, two RBI’s and a walk. Griffin Horne had a hit and scored two runs. Beni Espinosa had three hits, four RBI’s, scored two runs and a walk. Third baseman Cameron Klein three hits and an RBI. Carter Levine two hits and three RBI’s, not to mention a spectacular diving catch in right field. Addison Latko had two hits, including a legged out triple and gapper in right center, and scored a run, but no homeruns today.
As hurtful as the super-sectional loss to Byron by the DePaul Prep womens’ basketball team was in March, this emotional super-sectional victory for the Rams took some of the sting out of it.
“I told Sarah [Zarymbski, girls basketball coach and 2014 Gordon Tech classmate of the Sam Colon] that we would get some revenge for her,” Rams head coach Sam Colon said after the game.
“This team has got all the talent in the world. It’s a matter of can you put it all together in a year. Our first goal was to win the [Chicago Catholic] League [White]; we put ourselves in a position to get there. We didn’t get there. The next goal was to get a second season. The expectation was to get to Peoria. Now it’s to win it.”
It’s third trip to State for the Rams so far this year. Mitch Baum’s boys’ cross-country team won a state title in November. Tom Kleinschmidt’s boys’ basketball team won the 2A basketball state title in March. Now it’s Sammy’s turn.
The Rams will face the Columbia High School Eagles (30-4), from south of St. Louis, at the Peoria Chiefs’ stadium, Dozer Park, on Friday at 3:00 p.m. The other state semi-final will feature Joliet Catholic v. Quincy Notre Dame. The Championship game will be Saturday at 5:30.
The DePaul Prep Rams got ahead early and stayed away to take another sectional championship 7-3 over Timothy Christian and advance to face Byron in the super-sectional on Memorial Day.
With a huge crowd on hand at Montini, the DePaul Prep Rams (22-14) took on the Timothy Christian Trojans (17-15). The Rams were the visiting team. That’s okay; it just gave the chance to grab an early lead.
And so they did. In the top of the first, with one out, Vance Kurokowa walked. Oliver Vigerust singled. Kevin O’Connor walked. Griffin Horne singled. Vance scored. Beni Espinosa singled. Shane Leonard, the runner for Vigerust, scored. Kevin O’Connor scored. C. Klein singled. Michael Bloom, the runner for Griffin Home, scored. Carter Levine struck out. Addison Latko struck out. So that’s four runs in the first.
Dylan Kaminski had a four-run lead before he took the mound. That’s not a good idea for Timothy Christian to spot Dylan four runs.
In the bottom of the first, Dylan set down the first two hitters. But walked the third hitter on four pitches. He would struggle with control all day. The Trojans’ J. Armstrong absolutely crushed Dylan’s third pitch well over the fence in right-center. Lots of action in the first.
The Rams added one in the second then gave one back in the bottom of the fifth on a curious balk call with a man on third base.
“I was just trying it over the plate. They were kind of smacking me. My curve ball was not working against their two hitter. I slowed down a little bit. Once the bases were loaded I knew we had this on the line. I just wanted to lock it in and just get it down,” Dylan Kaminski told me about that fifth inning.
“I was a little tired but persevered and got through it.”
But it was Addison Latko’s tremendous homerun in the top of the seventh that put the game away. On a 3-2 count, Timothy Christian reliever J. Armstrong served one up and out over the plate. Latko absolutely crushed it out onto 16th Street. Two runs in. 7-3. With AJ Garcia in for Kaminski, that was pretty much it.
“I was locked in from the start. I was ready in that a bat, the adrenaline. Everybody yelling chirps at me. The crowd talking. Everything was good. I loved it. It fueled me to just get up there and hit that homerun,” Addison Latko said, hardly able to contain himself.
“It was a fast ball and I hit fast ball. I love fast balls. That’s my favorite pitch to hit. So I just took a drive. Let it in the zone and big dog is gonna eat. That’s what happened baby.”
A convincing win for the Rams. A sectional championship in hand, in curiously workmanlike fashion. Another day at the office.
And another day at the office on Monday in the Super-sectional against Byron High School. Interestingly, this will be the second super-sectional match up for a Rams team in the last couple months. In March, the DePaul Prep girls basketball lost a super-sectional game to Byron in Elgin.
This Rams baseball team will face a 25-6 Byron baseball team in Rockford on Monday, Memorial Day, at 1:00 p.m., at the Rockford Rivets Stadium.
Preview of this week’s INSIDE article:
By Jack Lydon
The Walter Payton College Prep Grizzlies (13-17) unexpectedly reached the Chicago Public League baseball city championship last Monday at the White Sox’ Guaranteed Rate Field only to fall in a thriller to the Kenwood Academy Broncos 2-0.
The young Payton Grizzlies put together an inspired late season run to make it into the City Championship. The Grizzles opened the season four wins against sixteen losses through the beginning of May. Amazingly, the Grizzlies then reeled off eight street victories including convincing wins against Simeon, Lake View and Mather to make to the championship against Kenwood.
The Kenwood Broncos (27-4) came into the game the favorite as the number two ranked team in the Chicago Public League. Despite what might have been considered a lopsided match up going in, the game was a thriller. Grizzlies senior left hander Max McNamara battled pitch-for-pitch, batter-for-batter against Kenwood’s junior left-handed pitcher Kevari Thunderbird, who is one of three brothers on the Broncos varsity team.
“Our record doesn’t indicate it much but baseball is a funny game. You start playing good baseball and its contagious. That’s what we had this year and I am proud of the kids,” said Payton head coach Garry Gustafson, in his second year at Payton. Prior to Payton, Gustafson was the head coach at Niles West for thirty-one years.
“To play in a ballgame like this obviously special for all the kids. That goes for our program and the same thing for Kenwood. We are just very resilient. We are a tough kind of team. We just stay the course and we’ve done that all year long,” Gustafson said.
The Grizzlies struggled against Thunderbird who struck out twelve batters and only gave up two hits and two walks in six scoreless innings. Thunderbird only came out of the game because he reached his pitch limit. The only trouble Thunderbird found was the top of the fifth where he gave up two hits and a walk but worked his way out of the jam.
Grizzlies pitcher Max McNamara matched Thunderbird inning for inning albiet not in quite the same dominant fashion. After giving up four hits and four walks but no runs in the first five innings, McNamara struggled in the bottom of the sixth with the game on the line. A single and a walk to open the inning put two Broncos on base with nobody out. A prefect sacrifice bunt to the Bronocos junior left field Destin Edwards advance the runners to second a third. A hot line drive knocked down by McNamara held the runners. But McNamara the threw the ball over the head of first baseman Lekh Murthy. The runners on second and third scored on the errant throw. That would be all the scoring there was.
“I had a talk with our pitcher [Max McNamara]. I told him that he has to keep his head up. He threw an outstanding game. We can’t hang our heads over one ball down the right field line. We didn’t get enough runs on the board. Our pitcher was outstanding all day, getting ahead and just one little mistake. Mistakes are part of baseball,” Gustafson said.
Broncos pitcher Thunderbird was ebullient after the game.
“I felt good. I wasn’t nervous. I came out prepared. I knew what was going on, I was prepared for it. [After we scored], I felt comfortable in my team that we would finish the job,” Thunderbird said after the game.
Both teams have moved on to IHSA playoffs. Payton defeated Prosser 10-0 on Wednesday moving to face Fenwick in the 3A regional final. Kenwood defeated 5-3 on Wednesday advancing to face Reavis in the 4A regional final.
DePaul Prep’s Dylan Kaminski tossed another masterpiece to defeat IC Catholic 6-0 at Kerry Wood Field on Saturday.
Full story to follow.
