By Bobby Narang
The baseball enters the second week of May and moves to the final days of the regular season. Timothy Christian is turning up the heat on its season. The Trojans have bounced back from a tough start to be among the hottest teams in Chicagoland. The Trojans (13-12, 7-3 Metro Suburban Conference) have won 10 of their last 12 games to sit in first place in Conference.
“We started off slow with an extremely tough schedule but we never gave up our ourselves,” Timothy Christian head coach Frank Romano said. “We are locked in heading into the postseason.”
Ace senior pitcher Donald Tober, who committed to attend Lewis University, is the leader behind the team’s late push.
“Donald has been dominating for us again all year,” Romano said. “With a fastball that sits in the low 90s, we can beat anyone when he’s on the mound. His bat has also been hot lately with two home runs in our last Conference series.”
- Meanwhile, Naperville North has won three games in a row to build some momentum.
The Huskies (12-7-1, 7-5, DuPage Valley Conference) are looking to continue their surge into the Class 4A playoffs.
“Our kids have come together,” Naperville North head coach Jim Chiappetta said. “Our returnees, especially the seniors, have really welcomed in our younger players and helped them truly understand our expectations. Our offensive production has been solid and consistent. Our young pitching is coming together and getting better with experience.”
The Huskies, who are batting .365 as a team, have been led by senior shortstop Tanner Mally, sophomore catcher Zach Bava and senior outfielder Cole Clemens.
Bava is batting .477 with seven doubles, three home runs and 22 runs batted in (RBI), with Clemens batting .439 with six doubles, a triple, and a home run and 18 RBIs. Mally has a .477 average with five doubles, two triples, scored 29 runs, stolen eight bases and driven in 18 runs.
- A few miles away, Neuqua Valley (13-9-1, 7-5 DuPage Valley Conference) is hoping good health and strong pitching equals a playoff run.
“Our starting pitching has been solid for the most part,” Neuqua Valley head coach James Thornton said. “We have been competitive in most games. In some of the close losses, we have either had the tying run or runs on base, or at the plate, so we have had our chances to pull out victories.”
Senior pitcher Mark Mennecke leads the team in innings (32 2/3), strikeouts (43), wins (four), while owning a 1.93 ERA and batting .359 with 23 hits. Senior Tommy Kuban is second on the team with a .329 average and has a 2.88 ERA with a 2-1 record on the mound. Andrew Gould is batting .284 with 2two home runs and 13 RBIs and Josh Wenz is batting .320.
“Mark Mennecke and Tommy Kuban have been doing it all for us this year,” Thornton said. “Junior Andrew Gould has been solid defensively, allowing us to move players around to solidify our defense. Josh Wenz is getting hot at the right time. We just need to get healthy and be more consistent with our execution offensively. We also need to learn how to put teams away.”