The captain of the Oak Brook
Outlaws is Matthew Pizur, a 14 year old 8th grader who will attend
either Elmhurst York or Villa Park Willow Brook High School. Whichever school he attends will give him an
excellent experience as both teams are in the West Suburban Conference which
has proven to be the toughest conference in baseball for the 2012 season. In 2011 the W.S.C. featured Leyden, Oak Park
River Forest, Lyons Township, Addison Trail, and Hinsdale Central all who won
their region. This year, seven teams
from the W.S.C. played in the regional championship game. The list includes Lyons, Morton, Leyden,
Willow Brook, Addison Trail, Downers Grove South and Hinsdale South. In head to head battles with the Powerful
Catholic league, St. Laurence and Mount Carmel won against Proviso East and
West while Lyons eliminated St. Laurence, Mount Carmel, and Marist. All fans of the W.S.C looked on as Lyons
Township High School played against Oak Park River Forest in an all-West
Suburban Conference State championship game. This should answer any questions
related to the power of the W.S.C. against the beloved Catholic League. It is safe to say that ESPN Rise had the rating wrong as they rated three Catholic League
teams above all W.S.C. schools and completely failed to rate Oak Park River
Forest.
As far as Pizur is concerned, the
level of competition and the demand of playing on a school team that expects to
contend for a state title will be challenging for him. Fortunately for Pizur, he has the family
support and the mental toughness to handle the challenge – by the way, did I
mention skill? Well Pizur is a sure
handed third baseman with an above average arm.
He moves great to his glove side and does a great job at using his soft
hands at third base to handle the hot shots.
He shows absolutely no fear at the hot corner. He has a tall lean physique that is close to
6 feet tall.
For the
Outlaws, he has become the number 3 pitcher allowing only one earned run in
three months. He features a lively fast
ball and a curve ball that he can throw for a strike on fairly consistent bases. As a batter, he has the makings of a homerun
swing. It will take time before anyone
can know for sure as his strength needs to improve before he can put the ball
over a fence that is 400 feet away. His
hands starts high above the strike zone and he lifts his back elbow high. He lifts his leg rather high on his stride
but he often starts his swing before he fully plants his foot. This often leads to his front shoulder pulling
– especially when he does not stride straight to the pitcher. He rotates his hips upward like a homerun
hitter getting lift on the ball, but he will need to concentrate on finishing
his swing high and getting full extension with his arms before he will be able
to put the ball out of the park.
There
is no doubt that Pizur has the skill set to play as a division one baseball
player. In the meantime, he will need to
hit the weights and develop strong fore-arms, legs and back. When this happens, he will be more accurate
in hitting for power and his lazy fly balls to left and center will start to
fall over the fence. He will need to
work a little harder on his pitching mechanics.
Don’t get it wrong, he has good stuff, but he will need to tweak the
little things like coming down on his follow through instead of crossing his
body. He is very coachable, make
adjustments well, and he makes a good dugout presents. Once when Coach Goul punished some teammates
by having them run after a game, Pizur did the run with them although he was
not a guilty party. If there is anything
better than a teammate willing to accept a punishment for something that he did
not do in an effort to show unity, I’d be very willing to know what that is.
Whatever
school Pizur attends, will be lucky to have a kid like him. As of now, he is a
three tool athlete for arm strength, fielding his position, and hitting for
average.
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