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50 | June 22, 2017 | The winnetka Current sports winnetkacurrent.com Yalowitz eyes 2018 MLB draft after dominant collegiate season Michael Wojtychiw, Sports Editor When Jack Yalowitz entered the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign last year, he walked into a great situation that allowed him to get an ample amount of playing time as a freshman. After playing in 43 games, with 41 starts, he embarked on becoming a better ballplayer. That offseason transition helped Yalowitz, a 2015 Loyola Academy graduate, improve so much that he was named to the All-Big Ten First Team this year. “What I can attribute the breakout is to a lot of hard work and the help of my teammates and coaches,” he said. “I couldn’t be there without them and they helped me blossom into the player I am. “The biggest thing from last year to this year was mental. I changed my approach to the game. I was hesitant my freshman year, afraid to make mistakes. This year I just went out and played baseball and had fun with it. I have this quiet confidence that I carried throughout the entire season.” The rising junior finished the year with a .335 average, 42 runs scored, nine doubles, three triples, 12 home runs, 44 RBI and 10 stolen bases. Yalowitz was the only college baseball player in the country to hit at least .355 with 12 or more home runs and 10 or more steals. “It’s something you don’t realize or think about until the season ends and when that stat came out, I sat down and realized it was pretty humbling because I had no idea that had happened.” For the past two summers, Yalowitz has participated in the Northwoods League, a summer baseball league made up of teams from Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. There are “I brought my wife home from the hospital after surgery— Bratschi Plumbing quickly installed safety grab bars without a lot of fuss!” — Bratschi Customer Make Every Bath a Safe Bath University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Jack Yalowitz takes a swing against the University of Maryland May 5 in Champaign. ILLINOIS ATHLETICS more than 40 summer baseball leagues, all across the country, made up of all college players who are looking to improve their game while also making a name for themselves in the eyes of professional scouts. Yalowitz has played both seasons for the Kenosha Kingfish and has gotten off to a hot start, hitting .313 with 21 hits and 16 runs scored through 17 games. “Last year I was put on a team in the league as well and last summer I played there for a month or so and was going to play there again this summer,” Yalowitz’s accolades in 2017 All-Big Ten First Team • Second in home runs in Big Ten games among outfielders (7) • Fourth in the Big Ten in home runs (12) • Eighth in the Big Ten in RBIs (44) • Ninth in the Big Ten in batting average (.353) • Team-best seven home runs in Big Ten games • Tied for eighth-most home runs by an Illini in a Big Ten season (7) • Team-best 118 total bases and .420 average with runners in scoring position • Tied for team-best .409 (9-22) with runners in scoring position during Big Ten games, 19 multiple hit games, 44 RBI, 42 runs and 18 runs in Big Ten games • Second on the team with a .409 on-base percentage and a .590 slugging percentage • Tied for second on the team with 11 multi-RBI games • Tied for third on the team with 23 walks • Third on the team with 12 two-out RBIs • .421 (40-95), 27 R, 8 HR, 31 RBIs in Illinois wins • .403 (31-77) with runners on • .400 (2-5) with the bases loaded Yalowitz said. “A lot of my club teammates from high school were playing on this team and it’s got some of the best players in the country, so I’m really enjoying it right now. My summer season has been relatively similar to my spring season. I’ve been hitting well, have a homer, am feeling good.” For many college ball players, being drafted in the Major league Baseball Draft is the dream. With the draft completed, Yalowitz will once again be eligible to be drafted since he will have fulfilled Major League Baseball’s requirement of playing three years of collegiate baseball. “That’d be awesome,” Yalowitz said. “That’s the dream.” If he continues to improve at the rate he has, the Chicago native who started playing ball at six might be hearing his name early on in the 2018 MLB Draft. BRATSCHI PLUMBING 801 OAK STREET, WINNETKA www.bratschiinc.com 847.446.1421 CELEBRATING 80 YEARS IN WINNETKA! © Lic. 055-004615
winnetkacurrent.com sports the winnetka current | June 22, 2017 | 51 Roche wins award as nation’s best player 22ND CENTURY MEDIA FILE PHOTO 1st-and-3 THREE TEAMS OF THE SPRING 1. New Trier baseball. (ABOVE). After coming within outs of going downstate in 2016, the Trevians made it by winning the Schaumburg Supersectional. NT dropped its semifinal and third-place games to finish fourth in the state. 2. New Trier boys tennis. The Trevians came within two points of defending their 2016 state title, finishing with 26 points, to state winner Naperville Central’s 28 points. 3. Loyola boys lacrosse. The Ramblers finished a successful season in second place after dropping the title game to NT. Michael Wojtychiw Sports Editor Growing up, Leah Roche was a soccer player. The Wilmette native played all the way through her junior year at New Trier and was ready to play club while at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. But that plan changed in the winter of her freshman year. “Soccer inside is super not fun so I started playing frisbee and it’s huge at Carleton,” Roche said. “Everybody gets a frisbee when you come to Carleton. “I started playing on a team that was really low key and I played that through my freshman year. A lot of my friends were playing frisbee so it seemed like something I could get good at quickly. It’s one of the few sports where you can start playing in college and play at a very high level.” From that first day of frisbee grew a love for a sport that saw Roche just complete her collegiate career by being named the first-ever Division III Women’s National Player of the Year, all after helping lead her team Carleton College - Eclipse to its second consecutive Division III national title. “This year we wanted to focus on our fundamentals,” she said. “We knew we weren’t going to play really pretty frisbee but Carleton’s Leah Roche looks to pass during the 2017 Ultimate Frisbee National Championships May 20-21 in Lexington, Ky. Jolie J Lang – UltiPhotos we wanted everyone to catch and throw. Last year we had a really good top half of our team and underdeveloped bottom half, so our goal this year was to spread that out a little more because we lost a lot of top players from last year. “I was pretty surprised in that I’m not the best player in DIII women’s ultimate but I’m also lucky to have a really good team surrounding me. I was initially surprised and couldn’t really believe it. I was able to win the award necause I got to play with such great players.” Unlike, say men’s or women’s basketball, football, volleyball or soccer, ultimate frisbee isn’t an NCAA sport, so everything is run by the members of the club under the sanctioning body of USA Ultimate. Ultimate frisbee is such a big thing at Carleton, Roche says, that some students even come to the school just to play on the frisbee team. Carleton is the only school in the country to have teams at both the Division I and Division III levels for both men and women. Usually two main differences separate the teams: experience and opponents. The women’s Division I team, Syzygy, often has players who are more experienced and will face teams such as Stanford, Texas and Ohio State, while eclipse, the Division III team, will play schools such as St. Olaf, Williams and Wesleyan.” “It’s not like an A and a B team,” Roche said. “Once you’re on a team, you’re on a team for however long you’re in school. I tried out for Eclipse my sophomore year and knew for the next three years I’d be on Eclipse and wouldn’t try out for Syzygy. “You can move up (to Please see roche, 46 Listen Up “This year we wanted to focus on our fundamentals.” Leah Roche — New Trier grad and Carleton College ultimate frisbee player talking about her team’s mentality coming into the 2017 season. tunE in What to watch this week TAKE TO THE BEACH: Now that summer is starting, get your friends together and head to the beach to play some beach volleyball. Visit ant one of your local beaches and play some volleyball. Index 47 - Going Places 46 - Athlete of the Week Fastbreak is compiled by Sports Editor Michael Wojtychiw, m.wojtychiw@22ndcenturymedia.com.
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