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34 | August 3, 2017 | The Mokena Messenger sports mokenamessenger.com Athlete of the Month Ahtlete of the Week 10 Questions with Brendan Morrissey Colin Kelly, a recent Tinley Park High School graduate who pitched and played first for the Titans, won the July Athlete of the Month competition for publisher 22nd Century Media’s Southwest Chicago branch. 22nd Century Media File Photo Tinley Park High grad named July winner Bill Jones, Managing Editor Tinley Park High School’s Colin Kelly was all about getting it done on the diamond, whether he was standing on the pitcher’s mound or over at first base. So, it should come as little surprise that Kelly recently was named July Athlete of the Month in 22nd Century Media’s Southwest Chicago’s competition. The recent graduate earned the most votes to take the title. The Athlete of the Month competition pits featured Athlete of the Week selections from our south suburban newspapers against one another in an online voting contest. The next contest is to begin Thursday, Aug. 10. To vote, visit Moke naMessenger.com, hover over the “Sports” menu tab and click “Athlete of the Month.” Readers can vote once per session per valid email address. Voting ends at 5 p.m. Aug. 25. All athletes featured in the July Athlete of the Week sports interviews are automatically entered into the contest. Brenden Morrissey is a rising senior and a quarterback on the Lincoln-Way East football team. This is his second year on the varsity team. Tell me about last season. Last year was the first year with Lincoln-Way North and Lincoln-Way East. I think we really had a good team. Depth-wise, we had a lot of talent. That got us far in the playoffs and the regular season. What got you hooked on football? A lot of my friends had played, and my brother and my dad played. I just wanted to play, too. I loved the NFL growing up, and watching college football, too. How is the transition to quarterback going? I played quarterback freshman and sophomore year, too. Last year as a junior, I wasn’t really going to start, so I played running back but now I’m moving back to quarterback. I think it’s been going well. I worked on it a little bit last year in the summer before I started playing running back, so I knew some of it. I knew most of our plays, so it’s just getting back used to playing it. What have you had to work on? Just throwing. It’s a whole new part of the game, playing quarterback and to throw the ball and everything. What have you been doing in the offseason? We’ve had camp, and we’ve been doing conditioning since January. It’s been going really well. Everyone is working really hard, and we’re becoming a close team. That’s really going to help us this season, come the playoffs. Our team is really close this year, and everyone knows each other better than they did last year. You have a whole year to mold and become a family, and I think that’s really going to help us out. Do you see yourself stepping into a leadership role this season? Yes, being a senior and being the quarterback. Especially as a senior. I think everyone who is a senior is supposed to help the juniors out and show them the way and show them what to do. During the summer when we’re going through our plays, the juniors are usually the ones who just need help to figure everything out. You just need to help out the juniors to help them be able to not think and just play, you know? What are your plans for after high school? I’m going to college. I might play college football, but I’m not 100 percent sure if I will or not. It just depends on where I can play. What are your goals for next season? As a team, we break it down into goals: we want to win our non-conference games, then win conference, win in the playoffs and then the state championship. Who are your role models? I look to some past Lincoln-Way East players. My brother played at Lincoln- Way East and he was a good running back, so I definitely try to carry the torch with him being my brother. Other quarterbacks that have been Photo submitted here, like Tommy Fuessel — he played in a state championship game — or same with Anthony Kropp. Not just those two, but all the players at Lincoln-Way East who had success and helped their teams make far runs. How do you get ready before a game? Mostly just being with everyone, you get in that mode. It’s game time. Before games, it’s always a nerve-wracking thing. Everyone’s quiet, everyone’s focused. That’s how I get in the zone. We have a game day routine, so once we’re doing that, I get ready mentally. Interview by Contributing Editor Kirsten Onsgard.
mokenamessenger.com sports the Mokena Messenger | August 3, 2017 | 35 Baseball Despite championship loss, East proves depth RANDY WHALEN Freelance Reporter When the members of the Lincoln-Way East baseball team look back at the summer of 2017, they will remember the journey, not the final result. The whirlwind two-week period, which included seven victories in a short time, came to a sudden end. That’s because the Griffins were stymied by Diego Koval, who fired a complete game in leading St. Rita to a 4-1 win in the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association/Phil Lawler Summer Classic State Tournament championship game on Monday, July 24, at Benedictine University in Lisle. It was the fourth summer state title for the Mustangs (15-3-1) in the past 13 seasons. The others were 2005, 2009 and 2013. East (9-2) had its eightgame summer winning streak snapped. It was the first summer state title game appearance for the Griffins since they won it in 2008. Lincoln- Way, back when it was still one school, won a summer state championship in 2000. The now-closed Lincoln- Way North also won summer titles in 2011 and 2015. Despite the outcome, the Griffins enjoyed a great run to the title game. In mid-June, they didn’t know if they’d even play summer baseball. But when Eric Brauer was named new head baseball coach for the team on June 15, he put together a few summer games in a short span. Those were wins over Crete-Monee and Stagg sandwiched around a 6-5 loss to Marist. When the IHSBCA waved the 10-game minimum to get in the summer league playoffs, the Griffins joined the field at the Lockport Township Regional. There, they won four games in 36 hours to capture the regional title. Then at the Lawler Classic, East won three games between July 17-19 by a combined score of 24-4 to advance to the title game. That was scheduled for Thursday, July 20, but it was rained out and pushed back to the following Monday. “We had fun working hard and winning baseball games,” Brauer said. “That’s what the summer is about. The success is going to make us work harder.” It proved the Griffins will have strong players at their disposal next spring. Four of them made the All-Tournament Team: junior third baseman Zack Jurgans, junior pitcher Cole Kirschsieper, senior catcher Jared Mutter and senior second baseman Jake Slager, Someone who didn’t make the All-Tournament team, but still had his moments for East was Julian Everett. The senior right fielder accounted for the Griffins only run in the title game when he smashed a home run down the right field line that stayed fair and sailed over the 315-foot sign for a solo shot and a 1-0 lead. “It was a fastball,” Everett said of the pitch he hit for a homer. “[Koval] had come with back-to-back curve balls and then threw a fastball and I jumped on it. It felt really good.” Everett was the second batter in the bottom of the first and his blast followed a 380- foot fly out to straight away center by Slager. The Griffins thought they’d score more runs, but no one else on the team crossed the plate. That was due in large part to Koval, who settled in after that for the complete game win. The junior right-hander, who was the ace of the Mustangs sophomore team in the spring, allowed the one run on five hits with no walks and three strikeouts. “It made me feel a lot more intense,” Koval said of giving up the home run to Everett. “I had to bring it back for my team. Everything was working, but mainly my curve and fastball were working really well. I was excited to get the start. This game gives me a lot of confidence going into the spring.” Koval got the lead when St. Rita scored four runs in the top of the second. Sophomore designated hitter Luke Napleton (2-for-3) led off with a single to center, and sophomore pinch runner Winston Hill later scored on an errant throw to third — the Griffins lone error of the game. Senior second baseman Mike Skoraczewski (1-1, R, RBI) had a perfect squeeze bunt to score junior third baseman Matt Callahan (1-for-2, R), who had singled. Senior catcher Jake Zylman (1-for-3, 2 RBI) added a two-run single to left to cap a six-straight batter stretch of reaching bases. That also chased out East starter junior right-hander Ethan Lambrigger and brought in Kirschsieper. The left-hander got a strikeout and ground out to end the inning and then went the rest of the way for the Griffins. In more than five innings, he allowed no runs on two hits with no walks and six strikeouts. “I felt pretty good out there,” said Kirschsieper, who had hurled a complete game two-hitter on July 11 in the summer postseason opener — a 3-1 win over defending summer state champion Plainfield South — and was the winning pitcher in a 5-3 first-round Lawler Classic victory on July 17 over Glenbard West. “I had pitched and thrown 38 pitches for my travel team [on Friday, July 21]. Coach Brauer asked if I could pitch, and I was ready. “It was a good summer and I got to pitch about as much as I can. We were on the fly. We didn’t even know if we’d be in the playoffs and we got things done. There’s a lot to look forward to in the spring.” East had some other opportunities in the game. Senior designated hitter John Slager (1-for-3) led off the second with a double to left that onehopped off the fence. But his twin brother, Jake Slager, was stranded there. Jake Slager reached on an error with one out in the third but never moved off first. In the fifth, senior center fielder Brandon Petkoff (1-for-3) blooped a two-out single to center, and Jake Slager reached on another error. Everett (1-for-3) then drilled a ball to center field, but it hung up and was tracked down for the third out. Jurgans (1-for-3) jolted a leadoff double down the left field line to open the sixth. He moved to third when John Slager grounded out for the second out, but Koval got a strikeout to end the inning. In the seventh, junior left fielder Joey Selvaggio (1-for- 3) smoked a one-out double off the left-field fence. Then Petkoff pounded a ball to right that appeared to be ticketed to go off the wall there for an RBI double. But senior right fielder Noah Miller raced back and made the catch just before he crashed into the fence for the second out. A grounder then ended the game with Everett waiting on deck. “I was hoping to get up again,” said Everett, who would have been the tying run. “At first we didn’t have a team for this summer, but we played free and with no chip on our backs. [Against St. Rita] it just wasn’t our day. “But [when the IHSBCA tournament] started, no one looked for us. We just trusted ourselves. We will train hard in the offseason.” Sophomore center fielder Tommy Troesch (2-for-4) and sophomore shortstop Brendan Carrane (1-for-4) also had hits for the Mustangs, who had eight hits total. St. Rita senior first baseman Frank Napleton (0-3) was held hitless. But his contributions in the teams opening round wins earned him the Jack Kaiser Memorial Most Valuable Player Award. “I’ve got a lot better feel of the guys on the team now,” Brauer said of being able to evaluate players over the summer. “We’re a deep team. It’s obvious that the spring is different, as there’s more teams you have to play. But this [success] is a great stepping stone to working hard and getting better.” muto From Page 38 “He really made me get to where I am. His whole theory he really wants to emphasize is how football is all about building men and building integrity, and it just made me a better person. It made me work harder and made me just work on myself and not have an ego. He taught me it’s all about the team.” Cordell said it’s “really cool” to have one of his former players moving on to play Division I football. Muto’s work ethic is what separates him from other players, he added. “He’s got incredible work ethic that starts with his offseason preparation,” he said. “Obviously, he’s very strong, just naturally strong, but he’s also worked very hard at it, and I know he’s been working this summer to improve his mobility and quickness, working on his hands.” Cordell praised Muto’s dedication to improvement, unselfishness and love for his teammates. “He is an outstanding character kid,” he added. “His teammates love him. He’s an easy-going guy, but he’s all business on the football field.” Illinois State assistant coach Kane Keirnan said Muto’s physicality and strength are his best physical attributes, but the player’s work ethic was his most impressive trait when the Redbirds began recruiting him. “He works incredibly hard, he’s a very good student, he loves the game of football,” Keirnan said. “We like guys that like to bash their face into other people’s faces. He’s into that kind of stuff.” While the Spread Offense – which doesn’t employ a fullback – has become the pre-eminent offense in college football, the Redbirds have a more old-school, smash-mouth approach into which Keirnan said Muto will fit well. “We play hard-nosed, downhill football,” he said. “We will use a fullback, and we will try to run the ball right behind him and knock you over on the way.”
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