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.
For the full list, click here.
--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.
Naperville Central celebrated a regional title on its home floor Friday night with a 71-60 victory over No. 7 West Aurora.
Senior swingman Drew Crawford finished with 28 points and 14 rebounds as the No. 2 Redhawks beat West Aurora (20-8) for the third time this season.
Junior center Matt Neufeld added 23 points and 13 rebounds to lead Central (26-2) into the Oswego East Sectional semifinal, where on Wednesday it will meet No. 3 Bolingbrook.
Naperville Central 71, West Aurora 60
WA 16 12 16 16 - 60
NC 16 16 10 29 - 71
West Aurora (20-8)
Cocroft 7 2-3 17, Hughes 0 2-2 2, Blackmond 2 1-2 6, Carey 3 0-0 7, Starks 2 3-5 7, Vaughn 3 0-0 9, Graham 2 4-4 10, Wyeth 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 12-16 60.
Naperville Central (26-2)
Crawford 9 6-7 28, Linne 1 2-2 4, Mallett 4 3-3 13, Ondik 0 2-2 2, Neufeld 9 5-7 23, Pomeroy 0 1-3 1. Totals: 23 19-24 71.
3-pointers: West Aurora 8 - Vaughn 3, Graham 2, Cocroft, Blackmond, Carey. Naperville Central 6 - Crawford 4, Mallett 2.
Rebounds: West Aurora 16 (Carey 4), Naperville Central 33 (Crawford 14).
Turnovers: West Aurora 8, Naperville Central 10.
Fouled out: Naperville Central - Ondik.
Neuqua Valley, the top seed in the Oswego East Sectional, was assigned to the Batavia Regional and will face the winner of the Naperville North-Benet opening round game, the IHSA announced Friday. In order to win a regional championship, the Wildcats may have to defeat No. 9 Batavia on its own floor.
As a regional host, No. 2 Naperville Central will enjoy home-court advantage. But in order to advance, it could have to beat seventh-seeded West Aurora for a third time this season.
In the East Aurora Regional, No. 12 Waubonsie Valley will take on No. 21 Wheaton North for the right to face fifth-seeded Plainfield North.
If the brackets unfold true to form and all top-four seeds survive the regionals, Neuqua would meet East Aurora in one sectional semifinal, and Naperville Central would play Bolingbrook in the other. Regional play begins March 2.
The last time these District 203 rivals met, Drew Crawford was feeling sick but still managed 21 points to lead Naperville Central to a 43-32 victory over Naperville North. The Huskies (7-13, 1-7) will have to deal with the Northwestern-bound swingman again Friday night on their own floor.
Last week West Aurora assigned one primary defender to Crawford, instead of rotating several fresh players to guard him. Jamal Blackmond made Crawford work - he didn't score during one eight-minute stretch in the first half. But Crawford still efficiently put together a 25-point game and just his presence opened things up for the other Redhawks.
After Central's 51-46 win, West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman was asked about ways to contain Crawford.
"No specific gameplan. Just try to keep (Crawford) from penetrating as much as possible, give Jamal as much help as possible," Kerkman said. "Some people force baseline. We do not force baseline. We try to deny baseline. We got beat on the baseline so many times by him, either with backcuts or just dribble-drives.
"He hurt us. There were times where he went down there and we maybe came down to give him help - but he kicked to somebody that was open and they got the good shot."
That is North's dilemma on Friday night. And that's why Central is 19-2 and 9-0 in the DuPage Valley Conference.
