CLC baseball ready for playoffs with top hitters
Brett Starkopf
Features Editor
The regular season is nearing its conclusion with the Lancers hoping for a better finish than last year. Every team in their conference makes the playoffs so the only remaining question is if the team is consistent enough to improve from their last year semifinal knockout.
Though the playoffs are still two weeks away, the team is looking forward to redeeming their upsetting finish last year.
“Our goals are always win the regional, win the sectional, make it to nationals,” Sophomore Kevin Miller said. “We’ve been talking about that since day one. I think the whole regular season is just preparing us for the postseason, which is something we’ve been looking forward to the whole time.”
However, if CLC advances far into the post season, they will most likely have to face defending champion Kankakee Community College. KCC is currently ranked seventh in the nation and is absolutely pulverizing their adversaries. The Lancers will have to rely on their defense as well as their offense if they want to win the championship. But that doesn't intimidate them.
“I think we match up with anybody in the region or, really, in the country,” Miller said. “We have just as much talent as any team around here. It’s just we have to be focused and we have to come with the right mentality. We just have to play our game.”
Their game is hard-nosed, fast paced, baseball. And they have the stats to prove it. They have currently put up double-digit tallies in their past four wins, and 18 of their total 27 wins. Of the games, they beat their opponents by 10 or more runs, beating two teams by 23. In their first win on Thursday, they managed to tie their season record with 25 runs scored. They have six hitters who are hitting better than .400, and every player who has an official at-bat has a hit.
The Lancers are bringing their super charged offense to Sauk Valley Community College for the regional playoffs. Lead by Sophomore Marcos Penaloza and Freshman Steven Torres, the Lancers prove to be a force to be reckoned with. Penaloza and Torres are both batting an astonishing .544, which is good enough to lead the nation is batting average.
Keeping up with them are Sophomore Chris Stewart, who is batting .477 (18th in the nation), and Freshmen Jay Mueller hitting .475 (20th in the nation), and Tomas Catala’s .468 is good enough to round out the top 25 leaders.
Their offense is good enough to get the W’s in the regular season but in order to advance in the postseason, they’re pitching and defense is going to play a major role.
Sophomore aces Ben Ehgoetz and Rob Wilson need to assume their roles if the Lancers want to advance. Ehgoetz is throwing the ball well with a 3.42 ERA in 23 2-3 innings pitched. He has a team leading 22 punch-outs and a 3-0 record. Wilson is still sidelined with an arm injury and hasn’t thrown since April 10. Fellow Sophomore Jeff Baird is pitching lights out minus a little hiccup he had against Highland Community College, Thursday. He surrendered 13 runs (12 earned) in 2 1-3 innings of work. However, the Lancers still won 25-13.
The team’s one Achilles heel, which has remained constant throughout the season, has been their inability to stay focused for all seven innings of the game. Many of their losses can be attributed to this.
“We sort of have a bad habit of coming out and losing focus,” Miller said. “We don’t have the right mentality.”
“But when we do have the right mentality, when we do have the focus, we really play within our own and we can really be anyone. That’s why we’re so optimistic for the playoffs coming up,” he added.
The Lancers are looking forward to a rematch with Oakton Community College. On April 20, Oakton shut out CLC twice by final scores of 9-0. This was the only time they were held without a run.
“(Playing Oakton is) something we’re really looking forward to. We want to get Oakton back again,” Miller said.
Hopefully this time around, their big bats can come alive and the Lancers have a trip to the DII World Series in Oklahoma to show for it.
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