Senior baseball standouts Sully Stadler and Zach Jones signed letters-of-intent to accept scholarships to the University of Indiana and Northwestern University, respectively.

According to Stadler, the transition will be “exciting but weird” after playing close to ten years on the same team together.

For both of these proven athletes, it started with tee-ball at age five, and according to Jones, was nothing but up- hill from there. It was simply a matter of baseball being his favorite thing to do. “I remember playing a lot of wiffle ball with my friends on my front lawn,”

Jones said. It was no different for Stadler, as he moved on quickly to begin his travel baseball career with the Glenview Blaze at age nine, with the ten- year-old team. Jones joined him the very next year, which began the four-year saga of the back-to-back lefty hitters in the lineup.

Stadler reminisces upon his favorite moment he shared with Jones during their four years on the Blaze together.

“At Cooperstown we played in a baseball tournament and beat a good team from Hawaii,” Stadler said. “Jones was skipping around in the outfield, and we were all celebrating and going crazy.”

At South, they were both moved up onto the sophomore team as freshman, and then onto the varsity team as sophomores.

“It was a big help to have Sully there, be- cause besides [him] I really wouldn’t have known anyone on the team,” Jones said.

Both went on to have very successful looking forward to their senior year, which will be their last year on the same team.

Jones, a first baseman and power hitter, is excited to have many returning starters this year. Stadler, a 6-foot-3 pitcher and center fielder, also noted that they could potentially make a deep run into the playoffs.

In the fall of 2012, Jones will be attending Northwestern, and Stadler will be joining his older brother, Walker, at Indiana. The signing with the colleges was nothing short of special for both young men.

“I was really excited about it,” Jones said. “Then to finally sign it, to be done with it, to be set on it, was awesome.”

After sharing a dugout for the majority of their childhood, Jones and Stadler will be Division I rivals next year. The thrill of possibly matching up against each other at the collegiate level sparks excitement in these two Glenbrook South varsity baseball players.