OPRF and Lyons Baseball preview 2013

     The 2013 high school baseball season is officially underway and it looks like this will be an exciting season.  This year I am challenging myself to increase my involvement supporting the West Suburban Conference and scouting tallent in the area.  I have always been convienced that the West Suburban Conference is from top to bottom the best athletic conference in the state.  Last year when Oak Park River Forest high school played aginst their conference rival Lyons Township in the state playoffs, my claims were confirmed - this  coming right after Proviso East championship appearence in the state basketball playoffs.  So my challenge is to document the 2013 baseball, football, and Volleyball season.  This may mean that I'll have to get a new blogger site.  At any rate, here is my report on the two state championship cometitors.

Oak Park and River Forest

     The Illinois high school baseball season starts within two weeks and coaches are analyzing the improvements and talents of students for final cuts.  Needless to say, the 2012 season in the West Suburban Conference was exciting.  The York Dukes won the conference and saw the second and third place teams (Oak Park and River Forest and Lyons) play for the state championship.  OPRF will return ten players from their championship team.  Some players to watch for the 2013 season are Charlie Fencik and Nick Kowalczuk who is perhaps one of the top ten pure hitters in the conference.  Both Kowalczuk and Alex Rice will have to make up for the 80 or so RBI lost from the graduating seniors Zachary Weigel (Seton Hall, Pirates) and Jack Picchiotti (Purdue, Boilermakers).  This is very possible as Rice showed great pop and power in his bat during his sophomore season.  Where OPRF will hurt is on the mound.  They will have to rely on the arms of two returning seniors and hope that last year’s sophomore arms are strong enough to face the varsity bats from York and Lyons.   

Lyons Township

     Lyons Township lost ten seniors to graduation but has fifteen juniors from last year’s roster to fill in those spots.  This will make Lyons one of the oldest teams in the conference and with the experience that the senior class has coming into the season, Lyons will be the team to watch for the 2013 season.  Offensively, Lyons has the great bat of Steve Heilenbach returning with the potential to hit 10 – 15 homeruns this season.  But for Lyons, it was the pitching that propelled them above the Chicago Catholic League teams in the state playoffs.  Alex Vannucci has a live fastball and can be deceptive with his changeup.  He will get 60 – 70 innings this year and if he does as well as he did last season, he will get the attention of some top college scouts.  Zach Carlson and Steve Heilenbach will round out the pitching staff giving the Lyons a potential deadly one, two, three punch that can take them deep in the state playoffs and make them a favorite for the West Suburban Conference title.