LF_040518

28 | April 5, 2018 | The lake forest leader SPORTS
LakeForestLeader.com
Baseball
Del Fava excited for Scouts unknown season
Brittany Kapa, Sports Editor
It’s a new season for the
Scouts and coach Ray Del
Fava is excited for the unknown.
Beginning his eighth
season as head coach, Del
Fava has a mixture of players
on this year’s roster. He
has three key seniors that
have three years of varsity
experience under their
belt, two sophomores who
are expected to make an
impact and an entire team
to bond together.
“It’s a lot of unknown
but sometimes the unknown
can be exciting because
there is talent,” Del
Fava said.
He is hoping that talent
will work together in the
team’s favor for a successful
season against talented
conference foes.
Last season, with several
key seniors, the team finished
at .500, was one game
over in North Suburban
Conference (11-10), and
lost in the IHSA regional
semifinal. This season Del
Fava will be working with
a 16-player deep pitching
roster, a senior shortstop,
and a few key underclassmen
that will help the team
in all areas.
“With the new pitch
counts, and trying to get 35
games in during the spring,
you need to have a great
deal of depth,” Del Fava
said. “We’re hoping that
will pay off for us as they
year goes on.”
Part of the challenge this
season is to bond a group
of players that haven’t
had years of experience
together. The first step in
that journey was during
the team’s recent trip to
the Ripken Experience in
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,
during spring break.
With just three weeks of
practices, primarily indoor,
Del Fava was hopeful after
seeing the talent level in the
small-intimate space.
“[The Ripken Experience]
gives us a chance to
bond as a team but also a
chance to hopefully play
some games in some somewhat
decent weather,” Del
Fava said.
He added that the team
did get quite a bit of outdoor
practice time leading
up to the tournament in
Lake Forest, more than in
previous years. But, with
Chicago-area weather like
it is, it’s hard to get enough
outdoor practice time to
feel ready. Del Fava and the
Scouts coaching staff tried
to get the team as much live
game practice as possible
before leaving.
The other main goal of
the trip is to bond this group
of guys into a well-oiled
baseball machine. The team
was scheduled to play four
varsity games during the
trip and two junior varsity
games. The hope is to finetune
play prior to conference
play at home.
“Because we have so
many guys who haven’t
played extensive varsity innings
it’s getting them up to
speed with the speed of the
varsity game,” Del Fava
said. “It is faster; kids are
stronger. It takes a little bit
of time to get adjusted.”
It’s also about getting
those more junior players
adjusted to the varsity-style
of play.
“I’m really excited to
The Lake Forest High School varsity baseball team
poses for a photo at the Ripken Experience in Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina during the team’s recent trip.
PHOTO Submitted
see how this team responds
in Myrtle Beach,” senior
shortstop Caleb Durbin
said before the team left.
“We’ve had three weeks of
practices now and Myrtle
Beach has always been a
good test for us to see how
we’ll stack up in our conference.”
Durbin, a Washington
University-St. Louis commit,
is just one of those three
veteran seniors that will
help guide his teammates to
a hopeful successful season.
“There is a lot of room
for ... [inexperienced] guys
to step up and I’m looking
forward to that,” he said.
Middlebury College
commit Andrew Gough, a
pitcher, and Drew Golde,
an outfielder/pitcher, are
the other seniors have the
benefit of experience over
their younger teammates.
With such a deep pitching
lineup, Gough is confident
that will only aide the team
in the long run.
“It’s pretty deep. A lot of
guys will get a lot of opportunity
to show what they
have and hopefully some
guys can step up,” he said.
“We have three sophomores
and all of them are
expected to contribute a lot
on the mound.”
Gough and Durbin both
agree that the goal is a
deep postseason run, but
know they can’t achieve
that unless the team works
together.
“Our team goals are basically
the same every year,
win a conference championship
and make it as far as
we can in playoffs,” Durbin
said. “Obviously a state
championship is our main
goal.”
Another goal, perhaps a
smaller and less important
one, comes in the form of
besting rival teams and
friends on other teams.
Many of the Scouts play
with or against players on
other teams in the summer,
but during the IHSA
season it gives the players
an opportunity to play
against one another.
“Over the summer we
play with a lot of those
guys, so we’re friends, like
really good friends with
other guys, so we just want
to beat up on each other,”
Gough said with a laugh.
“That’s the goal.
“You want to go out and
compete, and win, but especially
you just want to
beat your friend.”
“We know at least half
the guys on all of those
teams. It makes for really
good baseball games,”
Durbin added.
The three key teams for
the Scouts are Mundelein,
Libertyville and Stevenson.
Durbin and Gough know
these will all result in good
series. The goal is to win
those series.
“If we could do that, that
would be great,” Gough
said.
Athlete of the Month
Barr’s win a 2018 first for Loyola
Michael Wojtychiw
Contributing Sports Editor
The swimming season
might be over, but
that doesn’t mean Loyola
Academy swimmer Tommy
Barr is done winning.
The senior Rambler
helped Loyola win its first
Athlete of the Month with
a strong voter presence in
March. Barr won the February
competition, earning
LF’s March Athlete of the Month Candidates
Lake Forest
Jack Van Hyfte, boys basketball
Mary Doheny, girls lacrosse
George Schoettel, boys lacrosse
Dimi Schweitzer, girls soccer
706 votes during the voting
period.
Voting gets underway
April 10 for the March
contest, vote at LakeFor
estLeader.com
RIGHT: Loyola Academy’s
Tommy Barr wins
February title. 22nd
Century Media File Photo