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Sports
Dealing with the elements : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisDealing with the elements
| Oswego East baseball team experiences schedule changes
| by Matt Daniels
| 3/31/2011
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The Oswego East baseball team was supposed to have played at least six games before the Wolves met Yorkville today, Thursday, on their home field.
The cold weather, however, has not allowed head coach Jim Vera's squad to come close to matching those numbers. Oswego East - which was scheduled to play at Larkin on Wednesday but results were unavailable at press time - stood at 0-2 on the season at press time after seeing the first few weeks of its schedule completely re-arranged.
Monday's home game with Geneva was re-scheduled for 4 p.m. this Friday because of the cold.
"I think the tough part is just the waiting because it's a unique sport in the sense that there's an opening day, but there's really not, especially in Illinois," Vera said. "It is tough to get your athletes up for competition when they're not sure, but I think our kids have done a really good job of handling it. I think the most important thing is their safety, and as much as they want to play and they want to get out on the field, you as the coach and us as the adults with the administration, we've got to look out for them."
Oswego East managed to get in one game within the past week, but dropped an 8-4 decision at West Aurora on March 23. Other than that and the Wolves season-opening loss at Streamwood on March 19, Oswego East's time is either spent on the practice field or inside a gymnasium.
"I think the toughest part is the pitching," Vera said. "You're trying to stretch your pitchers out and with the situation we have where we played a game on the 19th, and our next game was the following Wednesday. Now, we're not playing until this Wednesday. It's hard to stretch guys out when they're not getting consistent work, especially because you're going from off a mound in the gym to basically not the greatest conditions out there."
The postponements have allowed some key contributors - seniors Bobby Smith and Cody Sumner, along with junior Matt Schultz - time to recover from some health issues. Smith, projected as the Wolves starting center fielder and the team's leading returning hitter, and Sumner, projected as the Wolves starting catcher, did not play in the first two games while Schultz, a promising junior pitcher, has not thrown in a game yet while he recovers from offseason Tommy John surgery.
"It's going to take (Smith) awhile to get in his rhythm with his at-bats, but he's such a good hitter, I'm hoping it won't take him too long," Vera said. "We've got him on a slow schedule and obviously with days like last week didn't help. We don't want him pitching until it gets warmer. He's going to work with his doctors and they're going to tell us when he's cleared to go. He's not far off. I don't know how often we'll want to use him early on when it's cold, but it's a season-long process with him."
The Wolves defense struggled in their loss last week to West Aurora, committing five errors. Junior Matt Miller suffered the loss, working 1 2/3 innings and giving up three hits while all five runs he allowed were unearned. He did struggle with his control, walking four batters and striking out one. Senior Paxon Jungels started and last three innings, giving up three runs (one earned) along with one walk while junior Adam Kishanov threw 1 1/3 innings, giving up two hits and walking two but not surrendering a run. Junior Zach Delli also pitched a shutout inning of relief.
Seniors Eric Egan and Cody Burton each went 2-for-4, with Egan supplying a double and an RBI. Jungels went 0-for-2 at the plate but drove in two runs while senior Danny Klingbeil went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Miller and senior Adam Kaczmarek each added a hit.
"I think we didn't play very good defense," Vera said. "I don't think that we really have an excuse. I think if we use the cold as an excuse, we're just looking for the easy way out. We just didn't get the job done, which we've just got to get better. That's been our goal is to improve on defense."
The Wolves are scheduled to play at 4:30 p.m. this Saturday at Metea Valley before hosting Naperville North at 4:30 p.m. next Monday. Southwest Prairie Conference play will then start at 4:30 p.m. next Tuesday when the Wolves play at Romeoville to start a three-game series - which continues next Wednesday at Oswego East and concludes April 7 at Romeoville. That is, if the weather cooperates.
"It's temporary and the thing we're trying to get across to the kids is everybody is going through the same thing right now," Vera said. "Nobody's taking a southern trip or nobody's got a dome they're playing in. Whatever advantage or disadvantage there is, I think is canceled out because both teams are having to play in the same conditions."
•Notes: The IHSA released postseason assignments last Thursday, and Oswego East is slated to compete in the 22-team Class 4A Neuqua Valley Sectional. The sectional is not yet divided up for where teams will play in regional action, but the four regional hosts are Benet, Hinsdale Central, Lockport and Plainfield South.
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