If recent results hold true for Lyons Township baseball, which includes Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association summer state titles in 2002, 2004 and 2006, the Lions would appear to be the odds-on favorite for another championship celebration next summer in 2008.
Unfortunately, this summer’s bid for elusive back-to-back titles fell short last week during a 5-3 loss to Fenwick at the Dominican Priory in River Forest. Seemingly always in the hunt for top honors during their summer and spring campaigns-LT also won the IHSA Class AA title in 2003-the Lions’ summer run primarily serves as a learning and evaluation period for the powerhouse program, specifically veteran coach George Ushela.
“We learned a lot about our personnel and hopefully the kids learned a lot about baseball this summer,” Ushela said. “There were too many mistakes through the first five weeks of summer, and a few more against Fenwick, but we feel our players learned things they can use in the spring. We look for our experienced players to educate the younger players on how we do things.”
Against Fenwick, LT pitcher Ed Viliunas gave up four runs in the opening frame with most of the damage coming from RBI singles from the Friars’ Reid Rooney and Joe Ketcik.
The Lions rallied with a pair of runs in the fourth. C.J. Esposito scored a run in the sixth to make it a 5-3 score; however, Fenwick starter Joe Sweeney kept the Lions’ offense at bay by effectively mixing his fastball and curve.
“[Sweeney] pitched a nice game and competed very well,” Ushela said. “In the first inning, we put ourselves in a hole and that changed a lot of things about how we approached the game. We kind of beat ourselves, but their middle of the lineup hit with authority. A fair assessment is probably Fenwick was the better team [today].”
Ryan McMillin, who hit .450 this summer, worked 4 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of Viliunas.
For the summer, the Lions finished with a 19-10-3 record. Notably, when the Lions fielded their projected starting lineup for the upcoming spring, LT turned in a scintillating 17-2-1 mark.
“I don’t think we’re as good as our last couple of groups, but we may surprise some people,” Ushela noted. “We have a lot of pitching and our offense is pretty solid, depending on the progress of our 7-8-9 hitters. It we play defense behind our strong starting pitching, we should be competitive in every game.”
This spring, a quartet of outstanding senior pitchers-McMillin, Esposito, Lorenz, and Viliunas-will ensure a quality starter takes the ball every outing. Chas Straface, Aseem Chataut and Don Cizek also threw well in summer competition. Brad Winkler, Mike Callaghan, Fred Larson, Kyle Goethals and Brian Trefil should figure into the Lions’ attack when March rolls around.
Along with perennial rival Oak Park, the Lions are expected to battle for Suburban (Silver) Conference bragging rights during the regular season. Over the last five years, the Lions and Huskies have either claimed sole or shared possession of the conference title.