2024 Season

[pjjp]

Repeat champions in baseball have been rare. However, last year there were 3 repeat champions in Edwardsville (4A), Naz (3A) and JCA (2A). Naz moves up to 4A this year, and JCA moves to 3A.

Edwardsville has won 3 of the last 4 4A titles. Have to believe they are one of the favorites this year. Naz will be a contender in 4A, as they bring back a ton from their repeat champion team of last year. JCA will be a contender in 3A as well. Have to believe Rice will be there in 4A, as they bring back a lot from their 4A runnerup team. Who are some of the other top contenders in 4A and 3A?

 

[rocketnation]

Rochester got hot in the 2nd half of the '23 season and made a surprise run to the 3A sectional finals before losing to Champaign Central. They return all but one starter along with their top 3 pitchers. P-1B Jack Swaney is a 4-year starter who has signed with NIU. Many of the key players were also on the 4A football championship team.

I also expect U High, SHG, Springfield, and Chatham to compete for the CS8 conference title and to potentially make deep runs in the 3A playoffs.

 

[sporthog9er]

LW East and LW Central could make huge runs this year. East has a pitching staff that can rival any school with Bauer, Justyn Hart, Tyler Ledvina- all LHP that touch above 90 with nasty offspeed. And Tyler Bell at SS, arguably the best baseball player in the state of Illinois and a likely 1st rd draft pick.

LW Central finally has some pitching depth and offensively will be continuing to mash with Colin Mowry, Landon Mensik, Liam Arsich, Braden Meyer...all big hitters and 3-4 year varsity starters.

 

[USD24]

Per Prep Baseball, states pre-season top 10
1. Edwardsville
2. Naz
3. Providence
4. Rice
5. JCA
6. New Trier
7. St Laurence
8.Minooka
9. Hersey
10. Huntley

JCA opened the season yesterday beating Minooka 9-5

 

[rocketnation]

Sounds like JCA will play Chatham Glenwood in the Metro East this weekend. Chatham has won 2 state titles and came in 2nd 2022. They made it to the Sectionals last year and graduated their top pitcher (Parker Detmers-Louisville) but return a lot of talent. Chatham is probably a slight favorite to win the CS8 conference at this point, although Rochester and U High also are contenders and Springfield and SHG have good programs as well.

If any JCA posters attend, I'd be interested in their thoughts afterwards.

 

[playboymixx]

Repeat champions in baseball have been rare. However, last year there were 3 repeat champions in Edwardsville (4A), Naz (3A) and JCA (2A). Naz moves up to 4A this year, and JCA moves to 3A.

Edwardsville has won 3 of the last 4 4A titles. Have to believe they are one of the favorites this year. Naz will be a contender in 4A, as they bring back a ton from their repeat champion team of last year. JCA will be a contender in 3A as well. Have to believe Rice will be there in 4A, as they bring back a lot from their 4A runnerup team. Who are some of the other top contenders in 4A and 3A?

Edwardsville lost quite a bit to graduation. Still lots of good players left and Edwardsville is a baseball town with plenty of young up and coming talent, but Father McGivney now pulls a lot of it away. I think that they will be good, but not good enough to pull off a 3peat. Big games to start the season coming up this weekend against Brother Rice, JCA and New Trier.

 

[crusader_of_90]

Watched the Althoff Blue Gold game at Grizzlies Stadium and they have some players. As we all know, in HS ball, a few good pitchers can win you a title - a La Odorizzi for Highland.

RE: Eville - heard they lost too much for the big trophy in 4A, but as PBM states, they are still going to be tough. Without Father Mc, they are in the title hunt again.

 

[crusader_of_90]

Holy smokes ...


Meaning the Eville JV baseball has its own field!!!!!!

 

[crusader_of_90]

JCA blanks Eville. Also:

Moline-7 vs Oak Park and River Forest-3 at Edwardsville JV Field - Final

Chicago Brother Rice-9 at O'Fallon-4 - Final

Joliet Catholic-9 vs Chatham Glenwood-3 at Edwardsville - Final

 

[playboymixx]

JCA blanks Eville. Also:

Moline-7 vs Oak Park and River Forest-3 at Edwardsville JV Field - Final

Chicago Brother Rice-9 at O'Fallon-4 - Final

Joliet Catholic-9 vs Chatham Glenwood-3 at Edwardsville - Final

Yeah, Edwardsville took one on the chin from JCA. Still showed some potential though with quality wins over Brother Rice and New Trier to go 2-1 for the weekend. Father McGivney looked good as well going 3-0.

 

[crusader_of_90]

Nice mix of north and south down here this weekend.

Normal Community-2 at Belleville East-0 - Final

Althoff-2 vs Teutopolis-1 at Edwardsville JV Field - Final

Morris-5 vs Freeburg-6 at Edwardsville - Final

Teutopolis-7 vs Civic Memorial-8 at Edwardsville JV Field - Final

Joliet West-10 vs O'Fallon-9 at Blazier Field - Final

Dunlap-9 vs Mount Vernon, Illinois-10 at SIU Edwardsville - Final

Moline-1 vs Normal Community-11 at Belleville East - Final

Oak Forest-6 at Triad-14 - Final

Washington, Illinois-17 vs Bradley-Bourbonnais-7 at Belleville West - Final

Oak Park and River Forest vs Mahomet-Seymour at Triad

Rochester vs Joliet West at Blazier Field Winnetka New Trier-3 at Edwardsville-5 - Final Alton-13 vs Bradley-Bourbonnais-8 at SIU Edwardsville - Final Lockport-7 vs Normal Community West-2 at Edwardsville JV Field - Final

 

[USD24]

Nice start of the season for JCA. 4-0 after defeating pre season #8 Minooka, #1 Edwardsville, #15 Triad and Glenwood-Chathem

 

[Kevin JCHS 81]

A National Top 50 I just saw on (X) Twitter 3/27 had:
Naz @ 42
JCA @ 46
No other Illinois teams in the top 50. Eville was listed as others.

 

[crusader_of_90]

A lot of Southern IL and STL teams are beating each other, small to big.

Early returns have JCA as the state's big dog when they came down here and peed all over everyone. Since then, Eville has lost to DeSmet and an Alabama team; 5-3 O'Fallon has been up and down - they fell to a Kentucky team and then beat DeSmet. Columbia is 6-1 with a win over 5-1-1 Althoff, who has 7-1 Father McG and 6-1 Belleville West coming soon. Columbia has Eville, East and West on slate, the latter at Busch. Then there is 6-1 Triad, which fell 8-7 to JCA. They are playing the local big dogs and a swing south through Kentucky in April.

Lots of good ball is being played down here.

This is Fr. MG's schedule so far:
Varsity schedule

Date	Time	Event		Score	Record
03-11	4:30 pm	Vandalia	W	16-0	1-0	N
03-15	4:00 pm	North Clay	W	12-2	2-0	T
03-16	10:00 am	Lisle Benet Academy	W	6-4	3-0	T
03-19	4:30 pm	Metro-East Lutheran	W	19-1	4-0	L
03-21	3:00 pm	vs Broadfording Christian, Md. at USA Stadium Complex	W	11-1	5-0	T
03-22	5:30 pm	vs Greenbrier, Ark. at USA Stadium Complex	W	8-6	6-0	T
03-23	10:00 am	vs Memphis Lausanne at USA Stadium Complex	W	11-1	7-0	T
03-23	3:00 pm	vs IMG Academy (Fla.) at USA Stadium Complex	L	8-5	7-1	T

 

[SiuCubFan8]

St. Francis just finished up a 4-1 Florida trip and is 6-1 on the year.

 

[crusader_of_90]

I looked at IMG's official record and Fr. MG is not listed - seems they got the turd team.

 

[crusader_of_90]

Althoff's 275-pound Rivals 4* DEFENSIVE TACKLE is raking this spring! Hitting 11/19 with a tater - .842 Slugging. He also won the 1A wrestling title.

 

[USD24]

Naz up to #1 and JCA #2 in newest PBR state rankings.
JCA is off to a nice start. 8-0 with 4 victories over current top 10 teams and another win over #22 Triad. Additional wins vs a good Lockport team and Notre Dame Academy, the #19 team in Wisconsin.

 

[crusader_of_90]

I really would be shocked if only three of the top 25 are from the 618.

 

[USD24]

Updated national rankings from PBR. The top 2 ranked teams in the state move up in the national rankings.
Naz moves up to 34 and JCA up to 39.

JCA and Naz play Sat at Naz

 

[Kevin JCHS 81]

Updated national rankings from PBR. The top 2 ranked teams in the state move up in the national rankings.
Naz moves up to 34 and JCA up to 39.

JCA and Naz play Sat at Naz

Thanks. It's a lot harder to keep track of baseball during the regular season, unless you're in the know.

I checked NFHS yesterday and it doesn't appear that this game will be on there (yet). Is there any possibility it may be broadcast on the JCA YouTube channel?

 

[crusader_of_90]

Fr. MG kicked the crap out of Althoff yesterday - Crusaders still have never beaten that program. They play again tomorrow.

 

[sporthog9er]

I believe Marist has given JCA their first loss. Marist been kinda down so far but never count out a Sefcik squad

 

[USD24]

I believe Marist has given JCA their first loss. Marist been kinda down so far but never count out a Sefcik squad

Marist scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 6th and then held on to beat JCA 6-4.

 

[sporthog9er]

Some random thoughts after the weekend...

JCA is going to be just fine in 3A I think. They look really good.

Marist winning 3 in a row

What is going on with LWE? Weird record with that pitching staff and Bell

Is Normal and Monticello for real?

Can't wait to see Naz in 4A playoffs. I think they can take it.

LWW 12-0 is unexpected, didn't think they played anyone but saw good wins last week

Rice is going to get real hot soon

Provi and St. Laurence also look very good and deep

 

[pjjp]

Went to the JCA / Naz game on Saturday. Sloppy game on both sides, which surprised me. Nice win for Naz, though.

 

[crusader_of_90]

Althoff FINALLY beat Fr. McG.

Hank Gomric 2/3 with a walk and a tater before closing out the last two innings.

 

[crusader_of_90]

Althoff continues to roll - six straight now. Top 10 in 2A.