Coach Grant Looks Back On The LZ American Legion Baseball Season

In a recent conversation, Lake Zurich American Legion Post 964 baseball coach Dan Grant reviewed the just-concluded season, citing some of the highs as well as the lows.

“Dan Johnsen threw a gem against Zion,” said Grant, recalling one of the high points. “It was the best I’ve seen him throw all year and it came at the right time.”

That 6-1 playoff win July 15 turned out to be the final victory for Post 964 this season. It extended Lake Zurich’s playoff life for another day, but it was really just setting the team up for the 12-0 beating they took the next day at the hands of dreaded Libertyville.

“We played Libertyville three times this year and combined they scored 34 runs off us while we scored five against them. That should tell you all you need to know.”

The July 16 loss to Libertyville settled Post 964’s record at an even 16-16 on the season. But perhaps more important than the exact number of wins and losses was the looseness and sense of camaraderie that the players and coaches experienced.

Lake Zurich’s playoff performance got off to a tenuous start with a 12-4 loss to Libertyville. But back-to-back wins against Lake Forest and Zion allowed them to play their fourth and final game against Libertyville.

“At the start of the week, I never would have guessed we would make it to Saturday,” said Grant, “but the back-to back wins against Lake Forest and Zion got us there.”

“These guys were just great to be with for the last month and a half,” said pitching ace Mike Irgang. “There were a lot of good vibes among all of the guys on the team. Everyone got along extremely well.”

“The Legion season is a sprint, not a marathon,” explained Grant. “It takes so long to prepare for and it’s gone in a flash. Like every year, it’s the players who I will remember the most. When you’re in school and you think teachers will never remember all the kids after they graduate, I can tell you after coaching close to 500 kids between Legion and Travel over the last 20-plus years in Lake Zurich that I remember every one of them, and I’ll remember this group as being one of the loosest and most fun groups of players we have had. Many of the graduating seniors are eligible to play next year as 19-year-olds. I’m already planning for 2012 and we just finished last Saturday.”

Grant will have some solid players to look forward to next year if they decide to play, especially Tanner Kiser, the power-hitting RBI leader who also possesses a Howitzer for an arm. It remains to be seen which players who are heading to college will return next season; Lake Zurich alumni Dan Johnsen, who is entering his sophomore year at North Central University, was the team’s sole collegiate player this season.

Mike Irgang and teammate Mitch Tuthill are the two recent graduates who will be playing baseball at the college level next year. They’ll be teammates at Benedictine University in Lisle.

The Vernon Hills Stingers 16U Elite girls fast-pitch softball team, which consists of players from either Vernon Hills or Lake Zurich High Schools as well as Carmel Catholic, easily won a tournament the weekend of July 16-17, outscoring their opponents 49-4 over seven games. And two weeks before that, the squad copped top honors in the McHenry County Heatwave Girls Fastpitch Tournament, which is a qualifier for the North American Fastpitch Association Class “Open” National. The stingy pitching staff includes Nicole Bitter and Erika Schoenfeld of Carmel, and Jordyn Comitor of Vernon Hills. Comitor closed out the competition by two-hitting Streamwood Magic in a 3-0 win and improving to 50-11 on the season.

Balancing out the awesome trio of hurlers is the potent Stingers offense, which sports four players hitting in the vicinity of .500: Kathleen Felicelli (Carmel); Morgan Manka (Stevenson); Mallory Parsons (Lake Zurich) and Maria Schroeder (Lake Zurich).

In their low-scoring semifinals victory over the Trevians, they put across three runs in the top of the seventh to break a 0-0 stalemate. Timely hits were made by Parsons (single); Felicelli (double); Manka (bases loaded walk) and Kasey Roe (two-run single) to seal the deal.

In the McHenry qualifier, the team went on a five-game winning streak to seize the trophy after dropping their initial contest. The other members of the team who participated in the two tournament victories include Izzy Borgman (Vernon Hills), Jennifer Claussen (Vernon Hills), Carlee Parsons (Lake Zurich), Danielle Pullano (Carmel), Madelyn Roberts (Vernon Hills) and Melanie Spears (Lake Zurich).