Baseball notes: Prairie Ridge gets a boost from freshman lefties

Prairie Ridge enjoyed one of its best postseasons in school history last year when it rode a wave of one-run victories into the Class 3A State Tournament championship game and lost a thriller, 8-7, to Springfield.

This spring has not been as kind to the Wolves, who suffered significant graduation losses and are struggling at 7-13 and in the middle of the tough Fox Valley Conference.

Wolves coach Glen Pecoraro recently looked for a spark, as well as toward the future, when he brought up a pair of freshman lefties, Riley Golden and Karson Stiefer, and tossed them into the rotation.

Both youngsters have pitched well. Stiefer picked up his first varsity win Friday, 3-2 over Jacobs, in a game that Eastern Illinois University-bound Nathan Chapman started for the Golden Eagles.

“First of all, lefties are more difficult to deal with,” Pecoraro said. “If I have a young guy with a three-pitch mix and we’ve struggled to have some success, and we have guys potentially that could play varsity for the next three years, I’m trying to get a look at them.”

Stiefer, whom Pecoraro said pitched well enough to win all three of his starts, went five innings, allowing four hits and one earned run, with no walks and four strikeouts.

“I didn’t think it would be like this,” Stiefer said. “I thought I’d maybe play one game or not even get called up.”

Last Thursday, Golden took a two-hitter into the sixth inning against Hampshire, but the Wolves let that one slip away in a 3-1 loss.

“I’m pretty excited about the two freshman lefties,” Pecoraro said.

Stingy Thunder: There is no great mystery to how Woodstock North has won five of its past eight games. It has been with strong pitching and defense.

The Thunder pitching staff has allowed more than three runs twice in that span. North (7-9, 6-5) has a shot at finishing second in the Kishwaukee River Conference, which seemed like a longshot a couple weeks ago.

“We have worked really hard with our pitchers about throwing every pitch in every count and especially focusing on getting a first-pitch strike,” Thunder coach John Oslovich said. “Getting ahead in the count leads to having more pitch options available to us as well as having lower pitch volumes.

“We’ve really focused on the mental side of pitching and how to be more in control among the chaos happening around them.”

During that recent stretch, Rylee Given is 2-0 with a 2.18 ERA and Blake Herrmann is 1-0 with a 1.45 ERA.

“Both have done a really nice job of utilizing all of their pitches and staying calm on the mound,” Oslovich said. “They are working really well with Tyler Fink, our catcher.”

Luke Udelhofen has been tough as North’s closer, with a 1.91 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. Udelhofen has three saves for the season.

“We’ve also been playing very solid defense behind our pitchers,” Oslovich said. “We do not have overpowering pitchers, but we do have ones that will throw a lot of strikes, execute the pitches that are called and be in control on the mound.”

Whips’ call-up: Hampshire coach Frank Simoncelli made a move similar to Pecoraro’s and brought up freshman lefthander Anthony Karbowski, whose senior brother Matthew is the starting shortstop and also pitches.

Anthony Karbowski threw five strong innings Monday in a 5-4 loss to Crystal Lake Central. He struck out six, allowed seven hits and two walks and one earned run. The Whips’ five errors came back to haunt them.

Heavy hitter: Hampshire junor Colin Miller is an Illinois State University commit as a pitcher, but proved he can swing the bat pretty well Saturday morning against Conant.

Miller ripped a pair of homers, one a grand slam, and drove in seven runs in the Whips’ 13-2 victory.

Hurricanes’ happenings: Marian Central is another team that got a big boost on the mound recently.

Jack Hayden threw a no-hitter last Thursday in a 12-0, five-inning win against Round Lake. Hayden struck out 11 of the 15 outs the Hurricanes needed. Hayden also drove in five runs and hit a three-run homer.

Frank Lavin also threw a shutout, beating St. Edward, 10-0, in five innings. Lavin also hit two homers and knocked in seven runs in three games last week.

Hurricanes’ sophomore Payton Sensabaugh has been torrid at the plate with a .583 average, 14 runs and 10 walks. Sensabaugh has not struck out this season.

Chasing his own mark: Richmond-Burton catcher Hayden Christiansen, who will play at Xavier, hit his ninth home run on Monday, putting him two shy of his school record set last season.

Christiansen has 20 for his career. The R-B career record belongs to Nate Roberts at 27.

Good matchup: Two of the hottest scoring teams in the area, R-B and McHenry, will resume their suspended game at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Petersen Park in McHenry, tied at 0-0 in the top of the third.

The game was started last Saturday afternoon and stopped by rain.

R-B has won 17 straight games and scored nine or more runs in 11 consecutive games. McHenry has won 12 of its last 13 games and has scored 10 or more runs in 11 of those games.