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38 | June 27, 2019 | the homer horizon sports homerhorizon.com Porters still see plenty of value in playing summer baseball Program once again hosts Wooden Bat Tournament Randy Whalen Freelance Reporter In a world of summer travel baseball, Lockport Township baseball coach Andy Satunas is doing his best to keep high school team summer ball alive. Numerous schools have made a choice to scale back or stop playing high school summer baseball altogether. But Satunas sees the benefits of it and thought that showed last week when Lockport hosted its own Wooden Bat Tournament between June 17 and June 19 at Flink Field in Lockport. It is part of Lockport’s summer baseball program, which goes from the second week of June and could stretch out into mid- July, depending on the how far the team is able to go in the summer postseason. “We’ve done this the past eight years in a row,” Satunas said of the Wooden Bat Tournament. “We’re constantly making adjustments to give value to our high school baseball team and experience. The summer is a chance to be evaluated over at least five weeks. That’s rather than four days in the gym at the start of March. “So, it’s very beneficial to be a part of. We sit down with the players afterward and do an evaluation.” Satunas is well aware that travel baseball is now firmly embedded as a huge recruiting tool. In fact, it caused him and the team to give up a fun event that would have taken place in mid-June. That was the College World Series trip. In past years, the Porters had traveled to Omaha for a few days. There, they partook in a high school summer tournament and also got to take in a couple of the College World Series baseball games. “No, we had to cut that out,” Satunas said of the Omaha trip. “It was getting to be too much with everyone’s travel ball schedule.” The Wooden Bat Tournament, however, lives on. This summer, it was sponsored by Barnwood Sports. There were eight teams total, and the first two days were divided between two locations. Those were Lemont and then Flink Field at Lockport. Not only that, but the Porters fielded two teams. Their White team was a JV one, and they tied Marist 2-2 in opening day action. The Maroon team was made up of more of the returning varsity guys. That one lost to Lincoln-Way East 11-0 on the first day. On the second day, June 18, the Porter White team lost to host Lemont 6-3 and also dropped a 14-1 game to Homewood- Flossmoor. Back in Lockport, the Maroon team toppled Andrew 8-3 but lost 6-4 to Palatine. So, when it came down to the final day on June 19, both Porter teams were eliminated from championship bracket contention because of their record in pool play. But both got early games in on the final day. Lockport’s Matt Santarelli throws a pitch against Lemont on June 19 in the Porter Wood Bat Summer Classic. Photos by Steve Millar/22nd Century Media At the Porter Wood Bat Summer Classic, players hit with wood bats instead of the aluminum bats typically used in high school games. In fact, due to Palatine not being able to make the long trip back down to Lockport for a thirdstraight day, the Porter White team played the Lockport freshmen team. They tied 5-5. The Lockport Maroon team defeated Lemont 7-3. Marist, which won a Class 4A sectional championship with a 9-5 win over Providence on June 1 at Flink Field, defeated Lincoln- Way East 1-0 in the first semifinal. Andrew defeated H-F in a five-inning suspended game because of rain. But the title tilt between Andrew and Marist never happened because the rains kept up, washing it out. With travel teams heading to weekend tournaments starting the next day, that was it for this season’s Wooden Bat Tournament, but the players certainly seemed to enjoy it. “I played in this last year,” junior Matt Santarelli said. “In fact, last year we won it, so we hoped to do it again. But the goal is to get better with my team. It’s different to get used to the ball off a wooden bat. In fact, I broke a bat. But I think it helps you with your swing.” Both Santarelli, who also pitches, and fellow junior Riley Pfeiffer, play middle infield. “It’s my first summer playing this, and it’s a good experience,” Pfeiffer said. “We get to know our teammates for next year’s season, and it’s good to know them and their tendencies. I like using a wooden bat and seeing if you’re able to barrel one up on it. “If you can hit well with a wooden bat, it will get easier to hit when we use an aluminum bat again, because it’s lighter.” Although the Porters did not fare as well as the year before, and the end was rained out, Satunas still thought the Wooden Bat Tournament was a hit. “It’s just fun, and it adds a little bit of excitement to it,” Satunas said of using just the wooden bats. “It gives the players a little different experience to just play with the wood bats.” In a different format, this season the summer league baseball playoff will start this week. Lockport is hosting a fourteam sub-regional type of tournament this week. It is slated to be a doubleelimination tourney, and the exact teams at each location and times were still to be announced, as of the end of last week.
homerhorizon.com sports the homer horizon | June 27, 2019 | 39 fastbreak Football Porters ramp up summer training with camps, 7-on-7 scrimmages 22nd Century Media File Photo 1st and 3 Porters football puts in work in offseason 1. Striving to get better The Lockport football team is having a busy summer gearing up for the season with a number of workouts, camps and 7-on-7 scrimmages in an effort to improve on last year’s 0-9 record. 2. Lots of returners LTHS only graduated 13 players from last year’s team, meaning they will have many guys back on the squad under new coach George Czart. 3. Looking at quarterback Marcos Voulgaris is most likely back at quarterback for the Porters, though Czart noted there is “still competition,” with Riley Pfeiffer, a junior, coming off a solid season with the sophomore team. Randy Whalen Freelance Reporter Marcos Voulgaris stood outside the Lockport Township football locker room after a practice last week sporting a Marvel Comics character shirt. As the returning starting quarterback for the football team, Voulgaris hopes people are marveling at a Porter turnaround season this fall. “We want to make our own movie,” said Voulgaris, who was among the first in line for “Avengers: Endgame.” “We want to make our own story.” With lots of workouts, camps and 7-on-7 scrimmages that are going on this summer, the Porters are putting in that work to make their own story. “We’ve had three days of 7-on-7‘s with three games on each of those days,” Voulgaris said. “The most recent one was at Lemont [on June 19]. I think they have been going very well. I’m ready. It’s nice to get back into it and get out here. It’s going to be a great season this year, and I’m excited about it.” Even though they are coming off an 0-9 season last fall, Voulgaris and the Porters have lots of reasons to be excited. They only graduated 13 guys from that team. So, many are back and they are ready to go. Marcos Voulgaris returns as quarterback for the Porters and hopes to help lead the team to a positive turnaround this upcoming season. 22nd Century Media File Photo Plus, there is a new coach in charge, as George Czart had taken over in that capacity. “It feels nice to be back in the role I relish,” Czart said of being back on the field as a head coach for the first time since fall 2015 at Lincoln-Way North. “It’s felt comfortable and natural to be back in this position.” Before this season, Czart was last on the Lockport football field in a coaching role as an assistant at Lincoln-Way West in 2016. But he spent many a day and night on the field as the Porter defensive coordinator between 1994-2006. During that time, the Porters won back-to-back Class 8A state titles in 2002 and 03 and posted a 34-4 record between 2002-2004. Anytime a team has that sort of success, the work starts in the offseason. So, Czart knows all these 7-on-7 drills will pave the way for future things down the road. “We competed against Richards, Lemont and Peotone [the night before],” Czart said of doing the 7-on-7 drills on June 19 at Lemont. “I like that we’ve really got a lot of guys coming back offensively. There’s not a lot of question marks there.” Although Crazt acknowledges that Voulgaris is the probably starting quarterback again this season, he said there is “still competition,” as junior Riley Pfeiffer is coming off a nice season where he quarterbacked the sophomore team to a 6-3 record. Seniors Aidan Ensley and Malik Makhlouf, along with junior Kyle Yehling, will be among the many vying for a spot at the wide receiver position. “We have a bunch of Please see football, 35 LISTEN UP “We all push each other to work hard. I like where we are at. We’re all brothers on the team. We have six home games this season, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.” Marcos Voulgaris — LTHS football player, on how the team is shaping up this summer and the upcoming season’s schedule Tune In Youth and Teen Basketball Camp Hoops clinic — 9 a.m.-3 p.m. June 28 and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. June 29, at LTHS • Former Porter and current Phoenix Suns basketball player Richaun Holmes hosts his annual camp for boys and girls ages 7 to 18. Index 37 - Team 22 Softball 35 - Athlete of the Week FASTBREAK is compiled by Editor Thomas Czaja, tom@homerhorizon.com.
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