We're late posting this, but here's an interesting look at the Hairston family from MLB.com reporter Mark Sheldon. Jerry Hairston Jr. reflects on hanging out at the old Comiskey Park while his father played for the White Sox:
"Back then, it was great, but now as I'm older, I realize I got a chance to be around Carlton Fisk, Harold Baines, Greg Luzinski and all those great players," Hairston Jr. said. "There was camaraderie they had on that team -- the older players with kids, too. Casey Fisk, Ryan Luzinski, my brothers and Doug Rader's kids, we always went out and played.
"My father didn't want us running around wild in the clubhouse. He stressed that the clubhouse was a sacred area. Just make sure you respect everybody. He said, 'I'm your father but you have 24 other guys here that have to get ready to play.' I understood at a young age that those guys were there to do a job."
Benet senior pitcher John Boyle and Waubonsie Valley junior third baseman Sam Carius were recently named to the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association's all-state team.
Boyle, who will throw for Creighton next season, went 8-2 with a 1.51 ERA. Carius, a unanimous all-Upstate Eight Conference pick, hit .431 with 31 RBI.
West Aurora senior outfielder Brady Renner - son of Robin, the Neuqua Valley head coach - was also selected for the Class 3A/4A team.
On Saturday the DuPage Dragons will host "Benet Baseball Night" at Benedictine. Former Redwings pitcher Bryan Roberts is scheduled to throw and Benet graduate Matt Kleifges is also expected to be in the starting lineup.
According to Redwings coach Jeff Bonebrake, portions of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to the program when you mention Benet baseball.
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.
Within this column, we mentioned an ESPN.com scouting report on Oakland draft pick Ian Krol out of Neuqua Valley. Here's the Insider link, which is excerpted below:
"(Krol's) fastball is consistently 88-90 mph; most have good tailing life but he can run it in on a right-hander's hands. His changeup is 76-78 with a lot of fading action, while his curveball has good depth and some two-plane break, but he prefers to pitch off his fastball and change. His command and control are both good for a high school pitcher, and he was dominant in three outings in the scout league this spring, although rainouts made him tough for scouts to see. He stays over the rubber well and separates his hands high to keep his arm action short. His stride is long and he finishes in good position to field a ball back at him. He's not big and doesn't have great physical projection, but if he does add a couple of mph to his fastball despite that, he could have a No. 3 starter upside."
North Carolina reliever Colin Bates (Naperville Central), who's busy preparing for the College World Series, was selected by Oakland on Thursday in the 37th round of the first-year player draft.
Infielder Jack Walker, a four-year starter at Concordia University Chicago, was selected by the Washington Nationals on Wednesday with the first pick of the 20th round (592nd overall).
Walker, a Naperville North graduate, was a career .352 hitter at Concordia, good for fourth on the school's all-time list. He's the program's career leader in five categories, including games played (176), hits (235) and runs scored (211).
The Blue Jays picked St. Louis right-hander Dave Sever on Wednesday with the draft's 490th overall pick. The 6-foot-4-inch, 195-pound Benet graduate was chosen in the 21st round last year by the Dodgers, but he opted to return for his senior season and rose to the 16th round this time around.
Sever improved his stock by going 6-4 with a 3.60 ERA for the Billikens. He ends his St. Louis career as the program's all-time wins leader with 22.
Oakland selected Neuqua Valley pitcher Ian Krol in the seventh round of the first-year player draft on Wednesday. The 6-foot-1-inch, 180-pound left-hander was the 213th overall pick. Krol has already signed a letter of intent with Arizona.
For some background on Krol, check out this column in Wednesday's paper.
We are admittedly late posting this, but as a reader pointed out last week, The Courier News has the entire all-Upstate Eight Conference baseball team listed here. The local representatives are:
Mike McKinley, Neuqua Valley, senior pitcher Ryan Wagner, Neuqua Valley, senior second baseman Joe Ippolito, Neuqua Valley, junior outfielder Mike Gerber, Neuqua Valley, junior outfielder
Kris Singh, Waubonsie Valley, junior first baseman *Sam Carius, Waubonsie Valley, junior third baseman *Kevin Kirchner, Waubonsie Valley, senior outfielder
With a 2-1 victory over Naperville Central, O'Fallon advances to face St. Rita on Friday in the Class 4A state semifinals at Joliet's Silver Cross Field. New Trier and Cary-Grove will meet on the other side of the bracket. The winners are scheduled to meet Saturday at 7 p.m.
This is the first time since 2004 that an area baseball team did not advance to the state finals.
BLOOMINGTON - Naperville Central just completed its infield practice and Pat Kaminska is warming up in the bullpen. It's sunny here on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan -- and despite earlier weather reports that had storms potentially coming through the area Monday night -- it looks like the Redhawks (24-14) and O'Fallon (30-9) will play for a spot in the state finals.
LOCKPORT -- For a team playing its best baseball of the season, Naperville Central got off to a rough start on Saturday in Lockport. Sophomore starter Dan Ludwig walked the first batter he faced, hit the next and ultimately surrendered three runs in the first inning.
Third baseman Nick Linne's throwing error allowed the game's first run to score. Providence Catholic's Kyle Thomas then crushed an RBI double off the wall in left. Sam Travis next lined a single into left that made it 3-0. It was not the time to be thinking about charter buses to Bloomington.
But Ludwig settled down to throw four consecutive scoreless innings and he left with a 4-3 lead. The lefty didn't have his best stuff, but it was good enough, with the movement to keep the Celtics guessing. It wasn't a matchup they liked.
"I don't think it was any secret (that) we'll hit your fastball, but just keep us off-stride and you can get us out," Providence Catholic coach Mark Smith said. "I think we got a little frustrated there after the first inning. (They) really started mixing it up and we just didn't make the adjustments needed."
As Central coach Bill Seiple said, "What you hope is that pitchers give you a chance to win, and that's what (Ludwig) did."
LOCKPORT -- No matter what, Pat Kaminska was probably going to be the last batter A.J. Woynerowski faced on Saturday in Lockport. As it turned out, Providence Catholic had five fresh arms available for this Class 4A sectional, and it was prepared to use them all.
The plan was working. Woynerowski had pitched a scoreless seventh following another middle reliever, John Ciolkosz, who gave up one unearned run in four innings of hitless ball.
If not for Kaminska's walk-off homer in the eighth inning, perhaps we would be talking about Providence Catholic's fifth straight comeback victory in this bracket. Three times the Celtics (21-16) erased 6-2 deficits, and in the sectional semifinal they scored four runs in the seventh to stun Neuqua Valley.
"Look how we went down," Providence Catholic coach Mark Smith said after a 5-4 loss. "Same thing that got us here -- we fought, we fought, we fought. We gave it everything we had (until) the last out."
LOCKPORT -- Pat Kaminska instantly knew it was gone. The Class 4A Lockport Sectional had reached a breaking point.
As that 2-0 fastball from A.J. Woynerowski disappeared beyond the wall in straightaway center, Central eliminated No. 16 Providence Catholic (21-16), a team that had thrived in similar late-game situations.
Kaminska's walk-off home run in the eighth inning on Saturday closed a 5-4 victory and advanced the Redhawks to Monday's supersectional at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, where they will face O'Fallon.
That leaves Central (24-14) one victory away from a state finals appearance.
Naperville Central coach Bill Seiple was out in Lockport scouting the Neuqua Valley-Providence Catholic sectional semifinal and had an interesting observation as to why Wednesday night's game was so low-scoring, and a theory about why his Redhawks broke through in the middle innings Thursday night.
"This is a very tough place to play, and when you play at 6 p.m., you got that shadow," Seiple said after a 6-2 victory over Lockport. "Neuqua and Providence (both) struggled all night long. And I don't know how (well) they saw the ball out of the pitchers' hands.
"It's not something you want to talk about, because then it gets crazy, people start thinking about it. ... I was concerned about it (but) we adjusted."
Seiple was looking forward to Saturday's first pitch at 10 a.m.
LOCKPORT - To keep advancing in the Class 4A state tournament, Naperville Central was going to have to win a game like this.
After scoring 33 runs during its two regional victories, the Redhawks advanced to the sectional final with an efficient 6-2 victory over host Lockport.
Pat Kaminska threw a complete game to lead No. 7 Central (23-14) into Saturday morning's championship game against No. 16 Providence Catholic (21-15). The senior right-hander allowed just six hits while striking out nine.
A 2-2 game turned in the sixth inning. Marc Mantucca and Bobby Czarnowski hit back-to-back singles to right. Kaminska then smashed a ball deep into the hole that Lockport shortstop Rick Guth knocked down but could not immediately locate in the outfield grass.
Pinch-runner Ryan Burton sprinted from second to score the go-ahead run. Anthony Lopez next bounced an RBI single into right that made it 4-2.
Joliet Catholic went 15-1 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, so it's no surprise that Jared Voss was named coach of the year while A.J. Plese and Nick Ratajczak shared player of the year honors.
Benet senior shortstop Alex Staehley and first baseman Pat Gelwicks repeated as all-ESCC selections. Benet senior pitcher John Boyle was also chosen for the all-conference team.
Providence Catholic had already rallied from 6-2 deficits three times in three regional victories, so the Celtics didn't need to panic against Neuqua Valley on Wednesday night in Lockport. Ron Kremer of the Herald News has more on the comeback here.
"We're comfortable when we're behind now," said Tim Hanrahan, who delivered the two-run single in the seventh that gave the Celtics a 3-1 lead. "I think there's not a kid in the dugout who doesn't want to be the guy up in that situation in the seventh inning. It's any of us that can come through in the clutch. It's an awesome feeling to do it over and over again. Everyone's hitting their stride at the right time, and we're playing our best baseball in the playoffs."
DARIEN - Neuqua Valley waited three days to play a game that was postponed twice. But then things started happening real quick in this regional championship. Neuqua has less than 24 hours to enjoy it.
The Wildcats fell behind by five runs, and then scored 14 unanswered to knock out No. 4 Plainfield North with a 15-6 victory on Tuesday in Darien. No. 5 Neuqua (25-11) advances to face No. 16 Providence Catholic (20-15) tonight in the semifinals of the Class 4A Lockport Sectional.
Jordan Williamson hit two solo home runs against the Tigers (27-7). Joe Ippolito lifted the solo home run in the fifth that gave Neuqua the go-ahead run and a 7-6 lead. The next inning saw Alex Lincoln add a two-run shot.
With that type of production throughout the lineup, Mike McKinley (6-3) received some breathing room. The Indiana recruit recovered from a rocky start -- he gave up back-to-back homers in the third -- and began relying more on his curveball. McKinley retired the final 12 batters he faced in a complete-game effort, finishing with 10 strikeouts.
No. 5 Neuqua Valley and No. 4 Plainfield North, which were originally scheduled to play for a regional championship on Saturday, will have to keep waiting. Monday's regional championship game was postponed to Tuesday. If the weather's clear, game time is set for 4:30 p.m. at Hinsdale South. The winner advances to face No. 16 Providence Catholic on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Class 4A Lockport Sectional.
Brad Engel is the longest-tenured member of The Sun sports staff and has won several national and state awards in his coverage of preps as well as the Chicago Bears, Chicago Fire and general sports.
Patrick Mooney
Patrick Mooney covered politics, prep sports and professional baseball for several print and online media outlets before joining The Sun in August 2007. He concentrates on prep sports, writing features, profiles and breaking recruiting news.
