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Naperville Central senior outfielder Matt Cmiel has made a verbal commitment to the University of Illinois at Springfield, which will officially begin play during the 2010-11 academic year as a Division II program and member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

An all-DuPage Valley Conference selection as a junior, Cmiel helped lead the Redhawks to a sectional title. He hit .434 with a .529 on-base percentage, stealing 29 bases and scoring 42 runs.

"Coach Brian Grunzke has made it clear he is building a winning team from the ground up and I want to be part of it," Cmiel wrote in an e-mail. "UIS received D2 status and approval to build a baseball team in August. I'm excited about the opportunity to play baseball for four years and to academically major in education. It will be great to be part of a new college program."

"Naperville Sports Weekly" will be back on the air just as the prep seasons begin again. The show starts its third season on Naperville Community Television on Aug. 30 at 6:30 p.m.

Viewers have three ways to watch: Channel 17; NCTV17.com through simultaneous streaming and on-demand; and iTunes podcast. The complete schedule can also be found at NCTV17.com.

The half-hour program has highlights and features from Benet, Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley.

UPDATE: Conlon, a kicker at St. Rita, is not out for football, according to Central coach Mike Stine.

Naperville Central, which will return the majority of its everyday lineup from a team that won a sectional title last season, is welcoming another Division I baseball athlete into its program.

Redhawks coach Bill Seiple confirmed that left-handed pitcher/first baseman Shane Conlon - who has verbally committed to Kansas State - is transferring from St. Rita to Central.

"Shane enrolled (here) last week," Seiple wrote in an e-mail. "I'm hoping he chooses to play baseball. I anticipate that he will be eligible to play."

Conlon helped lead St. Rita to a state finals appearance last season and a championship in the summer state series. The lefty went 9-1 as a junior, and Central's expectations just jumped that much higher. For more background information on Conlon, check out Prep Baseball Report news from Sean Duncan and Drake Skleba. PBR first broke the story.

After weighing all his options, Naperville Central senior Nick Linne has committed to play baseball at Northwestern.

The three-sport athlete will focus on baseball instead of actively searching for more football opportunities. The Redhawks quarterback threw for 1,711 yards and 13 touchdowns as a junior, later drawing an offer from Illinois State.

Linne, a versatile infielder/outfielder, said that Central baseball coach Bill Seiple and his Illinois Sparks travel team coaches did too much selling to Northwestern on his behalf to reconsider the decision.

"It's just a verbal right now, but I'm not gonna change my mind. It's not gonna happen," Linne said Thursday after football practice. "I'm really excited to get up there next year."

Joe Henricksen of City/Suburban Hoops Report has a recruiting update on 6-foot-5-inch Neuqua Valley forward Dwayne Evans, who -- if everything breaks right -- could eventually join his friend Drew Crawford (Naperville Central) at Northwestern. Henricksen writes:

After a strong finish in the high school season and a solid start in the spring AAU season, Evans did not play his best basketball during the July evaluation period. Although he has been a highly productive player who finds ways to get things done, he still has the dreaded 'tweener label attached to him.

Hoops Report Analysis: While Northwestern is still heavily involved and the biggest player in the Evans recruiting, the mid-major level would be ideal for Evans. If Evans to Northwestern doesn't get done, keep an eye on these schools as we inch closer to November and the signing period: Loyola, Drake, Toledo, Western Michigan and Fairfield.

That's the new name for the summer state tournament organized by the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association. Phil Lawler is the long-time Naperville Central assistant who helped found the tournament. Before the championship game on July 30 at Benedictine, Lawler will be honored and one team will receive the Phil Lawler Summer State Championship Trophy.

Candace Parker's "This is 'SportsCenter'" commercial for ESPN is scheduled to debut on Monday. Several of the show's anchors are featured in the 30-second spot below. Walking through the ESPN campus, they wear strength shoes - like the kind that intrigued George Costanza on "Seinfeld" - with their business attire. All in the hopes of being able to dunk like Parker.

Here's a testimonial: "Jimmy couldn't jump at all before he got these. Jimmy was like you."

Within this piece, we mentioned a recent Time magazine feature in which Candace Parker fielded 10 questions from readers. You can find the entire Q&A session here. The recruiting process has already begun...

How are you doing with your new daughter? Has your coach at Tennessee, Pat Summitt, started recruiting her yet? Brenda Goodman JOHNSON CITY, TENN.

When I first told Coach Summitt that I was pregnant, she was like, Where can we send the papers? I had to remind her that my husband [Minnesota Timberwolves forward Shelden Williams] went to Duke, so he's pushing for her to go there. But I'm doing great. My baby is the joy in my life. Obviously, I'm suffering from lack of sleep, but it truly is a blessing to be a mother.

--Benet senior pitcher John Boyle and Waubonsie Valley junior third baseman Sam Carius were honorable mentions on the Chicago Sun-Times all-area baseball team.

West Aurora senior outfielder Brady Renner - the son of Robin, Neuqua Valley's head coach - was selected to the second team. Wheaton North's Jack DeAno made the first team.

--From Prep Baseball Report guru Sean Duncan, here's more on the pitcher who eliminated Naperville Central in the supersectional round:

O'Fallon junior right-hander Miles Quintal won't light up any radar guns, but the kid knows how to pitch. He improved to 11-2 with his complete-game victory in the Class 4A third-place game. Quintal already has 22 career wins.

--Our all-city baseball package will be running later this month.

The numbers can be misleading when you're working out of the bullpen. Relievers sometimes take cheap wins and losses they didn't deserve and maybe it all balances out. It depends on whether or not the next pitcher bails you out.

Colin Bates - profiled here in a Sunday column - faced only two Arizona State batters on Sunday in the 10th inning of North Carolina's opening game in the College World Series. The Naperville Central graduate got the first to pop out and then gave up a single down the right-field line before giving way to Brian Moran, who entered with an 88-8 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Then the Tar Heels unraveled in what became a 5-2 loss. Lee Barfknecht picks up the action in the Omaha World-Herald:

Moran got Arizona State's Jason Kipnis, the Pac-10 player of the year, to fly to right. But North Carolina's Garrett Gore, fighting the sun, dropped it for an error.

But this time, he lifted a pitch to left center that the 15-mph breeze grabbed and slung into the fourth row of the bleachers.

So in the final accounting Bates (4-3) is charged with the loss, and North Carolina is one more loss away from elimination. Throughout the tournament, Adam Lucas of TarHeelBlue.com is providing daily links to College World Series coverage.

Naperville Central has presented its Red/White Awards -- given in honor of former team manager Tom Hoesch -- to the following spring athletes who demonstrated character and hard work:

Hanting Want (badminton)
Jackie Renn (girls soccer)
Stephanie Lynch (softball)
Brittany Fisher (girls track and field)
Emily Wooten (girls water polo)
Ryan Burton (baseball)
Corey Richier (girls gymnastics)
Richard Kalecki (boys track and field)
Frank Bicek (boys tennis)
Dan Dierking (boys volleyball)
Tyler Kelley (boys water polo)