Standing first place in conference, the South baseball team heads into sectionals next week. The Oracle went to print before the team competed in regionals, on May 23.
Head coach David Lindley believes that the team’s cohesiveness is a huge factor in their 21-5 record. According to Lindley, it takes more than just talent to build a successful team, and the South baseball team has assets in addition to their talent.
“You win with people, and we [have] good people,” Lindley said.
Along with team chemistry, Lindley feels that pitching has also been a large factor in their success.
“We have hit the ball well, no doubt about it, and our pitching has been very good,” Lindley said. “For the most part, we make the opposition earn it. We don’t walk people and when we don’t give away that free stuff, it’s hard for the opposition.”
This season the team has really proved to be a power hitting team, according to Lindley.
“I have historically been an aggressive, pressure kind of guy,” Lindley said. “We [have a good hitting team], so we haven’t even scratched the surface of doing as much stealing, bunting, [and] things like that, which we may need before the season is out.”
According to senior Sam Selby, hitting became an unexpected strength as a result of hard work in the off-season.
“We worked a lot on our hitting in the off-season because we weren’t sure if that was going to be one of our strong suits,” Selby said. “I think that’s actually turned into one of our strengths.”
According to Lindley, the Titans faced tough opponents early on, playing Oak Park River Forest, the defending state champions March 28. The Titans defeated them 14-3, and also beat Barrington 5-2.
“[Those wins] gave us the confidence, and we’ve carried that on,” Lindley said. “We are sitting on top of the South division, and that again is a credit to the team. There is not an easy opponent.”
Another key game of the season was against Loyola, according to Selby.
“The first inning we [went] down 5-0,” Selby said. “We knew that it was a long game, and it was only one inning. We held through and actually pulled out a 9-7 win against them.”
While Lindley is happy with the success the Titans have had so far, he knows that they can still improve.
“You can learn sometimes instead of just riding high all the time,” Lindley said. “You can say, ‘Well, we’ve got a way to go yet.’ You have to move on with today and tomorrow.”
Lindley believes that all of their success was a total team effort, as opposed to just a few key players.
“I really mean it when I say that our entire roster has contributed, or else we wouldn’t be where we are,” Lindley said. “I knew we had some talented tools with the juniors and the seniors. We actually have more talent than we can get on the field at one time.”
Selby echoes the full team effort put into every game.
“I wouldn’t say that we have one or two guys that extremely stand out and make the biggest difference,” Selby said. “Any given day, I feel that anybody put in our linup can do something and really make an impact on our game.”
One of the biggest challenges Lindley sees with such a talented team is to stay unified. Lindley feels this is something they have accomplished thus far, but he always sees room for improvement heading into sectionals.
“Some guys think you get to the tournament and it’s a different animal,” Lindley said. “It’s the same as one of those games we played in the month of March.[…] If we have the right approach, we’ve got a chance with our pitching and defense and hitting to have a respectable tournament. We just have to make sure we are thinking correctly.”
