With an overall record of 8-5 and a conference record of 2-0, South’s baseball team looks to pick up where they left off last season and win their conference title again, according to senior Connor Pauly.
Their conference wins include Maine East, with a score of 7-0, and Maine West, with a score of 12-4. Pauly believes that Maine West was a pivotal win for the team.
“We hit the ball really well,” Pauly said. “[Senior George Karavidas] had a triple, [junior Justin Machado] had a homerun and [senior Fitz Stadler] had 10 strikeouts. We played good defense, too. We all chipped in a little bit.”
Before their conference game success, the team went on a trip to Edwardsville, Illinois, to compete with some of the best teams in the state, according to Pauly. These schools included Sacred Heart Griffin, Edwardsville and Peirol Notre Dame. South fell to all three teams, but felt that they still learned and improved over the trip, according to Stadler.
“I think that [since then], we’ve picked up where we’ve left off and now we’re getting into the groove,” Stadler said. “I don’t think we were as focused at the start. As the trip went on, we became more focused and got back to where we were at the end of the season last year.”
While their tournament provided them with some tough games, winning their first game back from the trip against Carmel, with a score of 12-1, helped them regain their momentum, according to Stadler.
While the team beat Carmel by a very significant amount, they are not strangers to the opposite of this, according to senior Peter Stellas. On April 10, the team fell to Rolling Meadows 1-11.
“We just didn’t show up to play,” Stellas said. “If we did, I feel like we could’ve completely changed the game into the opposite of what actually happened. We lost by slaughter, when we could’ve won by slaughter.”
Head coach Steve Stanicek says that the team dynamic is different this year, as the team is having a hard time figuring out their position.
“We had a really strong team last year and graduated a lot of seniors,” Stanicek said. “So I think it’s been kind of ‘feel your way around’. We are 13 games into the season, and we still don’t have a set lineup yet. I think people are still trying to figure things out and who is playing where and what their role is. That takes some time.”
As for coaching technique, Pauly says that the team really enjoys the presence of their three coaches, Stanicek, assistant coach Allen Greenberg and pitching coach Travis Meyers.
“Our coaches are always on the same page,” Pauly said. “They always talk to us personally on how we can get better.”
Stanicek says that his goal for the team is for everyone to become a better player every day and to find their place on the team, so that they can focus on making the most out of the rest of the season.
According to Stanicek, the next week of games are critical, because they will determine conference standings. These games include Prospect on April 25 and two games against New Trier on April 28 and April 30.
