MSJHS baseball season comes to end in loss to Bloomington Evans
By FRED KRONER
Mahomet-Seymour’s junior high baseball team fell just short of earning a Class 3A IESA state tournament berth on Monday (Sept. 25), dropping a decision to Bloomington Evans in the sectional finals at Normal Parkside.
Evans tallied three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and held on thereafter to secure a 5-2 triumph.
Camden Beedy had two hits for M-S, which outhit Evans, 6-3.
Bradley Jones and Marco Casillas each drove in runs for the Bulldogs. Scoring the runs were Beedy and Jones.
Jones suffered his first pitching loss of the season. He worked 4 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, four walks and two earned runs. Jones fanned six hitters.
Beedy worked the last 1 2/3 innings and retired all five batters he faced, three via strikeouts.
In the regional finals on Saturday (Sept. 16), M-S had a dominating performance in an 11-1 victory at Spalding Park in Champaign over Danville North Ridge.
The Bulldogs played errorless defense and every hitter who stepped into the batter’s box either drew a walk or put the ball in play every time.
No M-S players struck out.
Four of the team’s hits landed for extra bases, including a triple and a home run by Casillas, who knocked in three runs.
Brennan Bailey was 4-for-4 and belted two doubles. Like Casillas, Jones was 2-for-3. He swatted a double.
Wil Selk also went 2-for-3 and stole two bases. Also swiping two bases was Alex Johnson.
In all, M-S stole 10 bases.
The Bulldogs tallied four runs in the bottom of the first inning and never trailed.
Preston Clark pitched three innings and registered the win. He was touched for four hits and issued two walks while recording a season-high eight strikeouts.
Colin Whooley threw the last two innings. He gave up one hit and one walk.
M-S ends the season with an overall record of 14-3.
For the season, four Bulldogs finished with batting averages above .350.
Casillas (.529 average) was the leader, followed by Jones (.441), Selk (.395) and Bailey (.352).
Casillas led the team in hits (27), doubles (11), triples (five), home runs (three), stolen bases (12), runs batted in (27) and multi-hit games (10).
Beedy (22) and Jones (20) were the leaders in runs scored. Bailey (11) and Selk (nine) were among the team leaders in stolen bases.
Jones produced eight multi-hit games, including five with three hits. He was second with 17 RBI.
Among the eight squad members who had a pitching appearance, six earned at least one victory.
Jones (5-1), Clark (4-0) and Bailey (2-2) were the leaders. Ending the year with one pitching win were Beedy, Casillas and Colin Whooley.
Jones and Whooley had the most mound appearances (six apiece).
Four of the pitchers averaged at least one strikeout per inning, led by Jones (44 strikeouts in 28 innings). Other team leaders were Beedy (12 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings), Selk (13 strikeouts in 11 innings) and Clark (17 strikeouts in 17 innings).
Clark (1.65) and Jones (1.75) had the best earned run averages among pitchers who threw at least 10 innings.
Ten of 23 roster members were eighth-graders. They were: Bailey, Beedy, Casillas, Clark, Jones, Miles Rasche, Lucas Rhodes, Selk, Niko Truax and Whooley.
Ryan Remole was the M-S head coach. He was assisted by Joe Kenney, Blake Begner and Jack Stickels.
