THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2008
Grens Roll Through Regional
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Sports
If there's any place in high school sports where advance seedings are misleading, it's probably the summer state baseball tournament sponsored by the state's coaches association.
Just ask Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna and his players about the opportunities this presents.
The Grens, coming off a so-so IHSA season last spring, were seeded 13th in the 23-team Prospect summer league regional in the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association summer tournament last week.
All the Grens did was eliminate 4th seeded Huntley, 5-1; send 5th-seeded Jacobs home, 5-1; eliminate top-seeded Schaumburg, 7-5; and win the championship with a 7-5 victory over 6th seeded Hersey.
The Grens joined seven other regional winners this week at the IHSBCA state finals being played at North Central College in Naperville and Benedictine College in Lisle.
Elk Grove was scheduled in a pool with Brother Rice, Warren, and Prairie Ridge. The latter school has most of the players back from its IHSA state Class 4A champions last spring.
Today (Wednesday) at 10 a.m., Elk Grove faced Brother Rice in its final pool B game. The top two finishers in each pool square off in semifinals tomorrow (Thursday) at North Central, and the championship game is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Benedictine.
Prairie Ridge is the "conventional wisdom" favorite in these finals, mostly because of their outstanding performance in the IHSA tournament in early June.
Notre Dame was the Journal area's other regional finalist last week, losing to Warren in the Palatine regional final. This was the Dons second consecutive regional runner-up finish in this event.
Notre Dame, which finished its summer season at 13-6, was seeded 10th at Palatine, and defeated Glenbrook North, Niles West, and 2nd seeded St. Patrick on its way to the regional final.
Other 2008 state finals participants are Lincoln Way East, Naperville Central, Waubonsie Valley, and Oak Park-River Forest.
Speaking of seedings, Brother Rice was top-seeded in its regional, Lincoln Way East was 15th, Naperville Central was 1st, Prairie Ridge was 4th, Warren was 1st, and Oak Park was 2nd.