The Times Baseball Notebook: Postseason paths revealed, Bulldogs defense jelling, a few key matchups

The Illinois High School Association released its postseason baseball sectional assignments late last week, with a few curveballs thrown at area teams from the playoff paths to which they’ve been accustomed.

Teams are assigned to one of two geographic subsectionals within a larger sectional complex, and in most sectionals the four regional hosts have been determined. While the site of sectionals are locked in, which teams play in which regionals are only set in stone for the four regional hosts, with the other teams assigned to regional sites based on their yet-to-be-determined seed, geography or a combination of both.

Metamora the sectional host in 3A

Starting off in Class 3A, all four of the extended area’s baseball teams – La Salle-Peru, Morris, Ottawa and Streator – have been placed in Subsectional A of the 3A Metamora Sectional, where the two regional host schools will be Geneseo and Morris. Other ballclubs in that half of the sectional include Dunlap, Galesburg, Kankakee and Rock Island, the last of which fortuitously for seeding purposes has played both Ottawa (a 7-6 Pirates victory) and Streator (a 5-4 Bulldogs victory).

The Subsectional B portion includes many of the teams Streator has found itself placed with for regionals in recent years. Limestone, East Peoria, Metamora, Peoria High, Peoria Notre Dame, Peoria Richwoods and regional hosts Morton and Washington – the last of which shut out Ottawa and split a doubleheader with Streator this season – fill out the Metamora Sectional.

2As heading different directions

The area’s Class 2A baseball teams were scattered around by the IHSA.

Sandwich will be in a subsectional of the 2A Stillman Valley Sectional competing against Marian, Richmond-Burton, Marengo, Lisle, Genoa-Kingston, Elgin St. Edward, Aurora Central Catholic and regional hosts Wheaton Academy and Johnsburg. Among the teams in the other half of the sectional are Mendota and Rock Falls, with those regionals hosted by Oregon and Pecatonica.

Seneca has been assigned to the 2A Joliet Catholic Sectional, with one subsectional made up entirely of Chicago teams, and the other consisting of Seneca, Wilmington, Beecher, Reed-Custer, Herscher, Joliet Catholic, Bishop McNamara, Peotone, Momence and regional hosts Coal City and Manteno.

Fieldcrest will be heading to Subsectional B of the 2A Decatur Millikin Sectional, where the regional hosts are familiar foes Eureka and Tri-Valley. Rounding out the subsectional are Tremont, Olympia, Pontiac, Dee-Mack, Prairie Central, El Paso-Gridley, Clinton and Bloomington Central Catholic.

Marquette, Putnam Co. regional sites in 1A

More like 3A than 2A, the area’s Class 1A schools have been, for the most part, grouped together.

Judson University in Elgin will again play host to the 1A Harvest Christian Sectional, with the sectional hosts and a baker’s dozen other Chicago and suburban teams filling Subsectional B. It is Subsectional A that houses multiple Times-area ballclubs, including regional hosts/last year’s Harvest Christian Sectional championship game combatants Putnam County and Marquette Academy.

Visiting either the Panthers or the Crusaders for regionals will be a roster of teams including Yorkville Christian, Somonauk, Indian Creek, Serena, St. Bede, Leland, Newark, Earlville, Aurora Christian and Hinckley-Big Rock.

Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell and Dwight will be shipped south to the 1A Illinois Wesleyan Sectional complex, with regional hosts being LeRoy and Lexington. Joining the Warriors, Trojans, Panthers and Minutemen in those two regionals will be Cornerstone Christian, Ridgeview, Gardner-South Wilmington, Hartsburg-Emden, Delavan, Roanoke-Benson and Heyworth.

Defense shaping up for streaking Streator

The Streator Bulldogs ran their win streak to eight games before dropping the second game of a doubleheader Saturday against Washington, their first loss in the month of April. Included in that eight-game run were victories over Rochelle, Rock Island and the aforementioned Washington as well as Illinois Central Eight Conference sweeps of Peotone and Wilmington.

While the pitching has been great and the bats have been warming up, the defensive improvement has been a game-changer, according to head coach Beau Albert.

“The last few games, we’ve played well defensively,” Albert said at the end of a 4-1 last week. “We really have, and against some good ballclubs. That’s encouraging, because early on in the season we booted the ball around a little bit.

“It’s nice to see us making some plays and making plays that aren’t necessarily just routine. It’s starting to come together.”

This week’s top games

Even with most of Monday’s slate of games wiped out, there are some intriguing showdowns on the schedule this week including:

Seneca vs. Marquette: Always an intense Tri-County Conference showdown since the Fighting Irish joined. Seneca hosts Tuesday, while Wednesday’s game is at Masinelli Field.

Coal City vs. Streator: The ICE series features two teams with one league loss each, with Tuesday’s game hosted by Streator and Wednesday’s makeup date by the Coalers.

Ottawa vs. Sandwich: Being played Wednesday at Ottawa and Friday at the home of the Indians, expect good ballgames between teams trying to break into the top half of the Interstate 8 standings.