Baseball notes: Andrew Golinski takes the lead as Sandwich’s lone senior – and now part-time catcher

Andrew Golinski has been in Boy Scouts since the fifth grade, and recently earned his Eagle Scout rank. He’s learned life skills such as trustworthiness, integrity and leadership through his experiences with the Scouts.

He’s a leader in his athletic pursuits, too.

As the only senior starter on a Sandwich baseball team that starts three juniors and the rest sophomores and a freshman, Golinski’s experience and leadership is invaluable.

“He’s been an outstanding leader for us,” Sandwich coach Jason VanPelt said. “We have a lot of young guys on the team and he’s been a great guy for these kids to look up to. They follow his lead.”

Golinski has taken the lead by taking on new responsibilities.

The Indians did not have a catcher this spring, as their catcher last season moved to Florida. Sandwich was in a position where it needed someone to step forward, and Golinski did. He had not played catcher since he was a freshman at Yorkville, where he played before transferring to Sandwich.

“Freshman year at Yorkville I was kind of a backup catcher, I wasn’t very good at blocking, so they had me catch pitchers that didn’t throw that many balls in the dirt,” Golinski said. “When I came to Sandwich, I decided to focus on other things; in travel, I played middle infield, gave up catching. This year, they needed a catcher and I was, like, ‘Freshman year I caught.’ I’ve worked hard to fix my blocking issues.”

Golinski’s main issue catching was reading the down angle. He mentally trained himself to instantly go down to try to block balls. His mental reps focused on blocking the ball, thinking about success instead of not messing up or failing. VanPelt said he’s doing quite well.

“He’s thrown some guys out trying to steal on him, and he’s really improved blocking balls in the dirt,” VanPelt said. “He’s taking command of the field, talking to the rest of the players, letting them know where they need to be. It’s been a positive deal for us.”

Golinski is also hitting over .300 on the season as Sandwich’s No. 3 hitter, and is the Indians’ top pitcher when he’s not catching.

“I’ve worked on my changeup this year, it’s really got that 10 mph difference, a nice drop to it. Added to my fastball and curveball – it’s kind of hard to hit,” Golinski said. “Even when they do hit it, it’s a weak pop up or a ground ball. Every now and then I give up a decent hit, but I focus on hitting my spots and trust my stuff.”

As much as anything, VanPelt said Golinski is a competitor when he takes the ball.

“He doesn’t throw very hard but he can locate his fastball and throws three good pitches – fastball, curveball, changeup – that keep batters off balance,” VanPelt said. “The pitching stats don’t always show how good he has been. I’m quite confident we have the toughest schedule in the state for a 2A program, but we’re battling out there.”

Indeed, it has been a tough go in a tough league for the winless Indians, but they’ve shown signs of growth. On Monday, April 25, Sandwich and Rochelle were tied into the seventh inning of an eventual 7-6 Indians loss. Golinski had three of Sandwich’s 11 hits in that game and struck out six over six innings.

“We played Rochelle tough, a team that beat Sycamore the other night. Against La Salle-Peru, they had their pitcher going that is going to Illinois, we were putting the ball in play, which is tough when a kid is throwing 90,” VanPelt said. “Andrew is doing a great job of keeping our guys’ attitude positive throughout the season.”

Plano no-hitter

Plano sophomore Kaden Aguirre turned in a gem of an outing Thursday, April 28, throwing a complete-game, no-hitter with four strikeouts in an 8-1 win over Ottawa. Aguirre (2-2) allowed only two walks. Ottawa’s lone run came in the seventh inning.

“It came down to pitch location. He was able to locate three pitches for strikes,” Plano coach Nate Hill said. “He was working on getting his fastball across early on. He was able to locate his changeup and curveball effectively, and that got hitters off balance later in the game. Not a ton of strikeouts, but he was able to get guys to ground out and hit balls at people, and we made a couple nice defensive plays.”

Aguirre snagged two line drives hit back to him in the fifth. In the first inning, Plano right fielder Luca Schoensee flagged down a fly ball hit in the gap, and Mason Accidentale followed with his first homer of the season in the bottom half to get the Reapers’ offense going.

Aguirre showed some potential coming into the season as the youngster on a Plano pitching rotation with three seniors. Two weeks ago at Spring Valley Hall he threw a complete game in a 3-2 loss, allowing no earned runs over six innings. He’s now Plano’s innings leader with 27, posting a 2-2 record with a 1.81 earned run average and 28 strikeouts with 10 hits allowed. He has walked 14, so command has been a work in progress.

He’ll surely be busy in the next couple of weeks as Plano plays 11 games in 12 days starting Monday.

“When we’re in the gym for open gyms, he’s automatic in that controlled environment,” Hill said. “He struggled with his command early on. He needed to get into that mode of taking what we see in practice into games.”

Around the horn

Aguirre provided one of stellar pitching performances this week from around the area.

Oswego East’s Ashton Izzi struck out 11 over 4 1/3 innings on April 25 against Minooka, and teammate Christian Battista struck out nine over five innings and allowed only one earned run April 27. Yorkville sophomore Simon Skroch was dominant April 25, striking out 10 and allowing one unearned run on two hits over six innings in an 11-1 win over West Aurora. And on April 28, Oswego senior lefty Joey Cecola struck out 12 over six innings in an eventual 5-4 win over Plainfield North.

Cecola on the season has posted a 4-1 record with a 2.71 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 26 hits allowed over 30 innings.

“He’s been very productive on the mound for us,” Oswego coach Joe Giarrante said. “He’s really come a long way, trusting his pitches. You can tell he’s getting confident. That’s what we need out of him.”