Playoffs begin this week.
Any predictions as to who will win which rounds?
Any scores and highlights to share?

St. Rita beat Marist 5-4 behind the strength of 2 Tony Zych home runs. Marist led 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth before the comeback.

Rita squeeks out wins all the time against inferior opponents. Seems like every year on paper they are head and shoulders above everyone but they don't play that way, they play way too many close games. They only had to beat Rice once to win the league and they lost to them twice. I know you got to get lucky to win and go down state but they should be dominating teams. I wouldn't be surprised if they run into a good pitcher and get beat soon.

does anyone know if Conant threw Austin Wright in their first game? They are a 16 seed playing Schaumburg whose the #1 seed, if they have Austin throw that could be a huge upset very early for a good team.

I read in the Elgin Courier that Wright did not pitch.

Walt Wijas pitched for Conant.

Scores- http://www.ihsa.org/scores/8y21ba4.htm

Schaumburg beat Conant 2 to 1 tonight. Close nail biter of a game, and yes, Austin Wright did pitch!

I knew that would be a tough game, Conant was a 16-seed. Seems there's already some good games, WWS beat Downer's South who had a great year and was co-champs of the conference, that's an upset. And WWS has beaten Benet like 3 orf 4 years or something like that so I am sure Benet is a little nervous. Cary had a good team and they lost to Crystal Lake South. That Nequa, Downer's North, Naperville bracket looks tough too.

How did Austin Wright do pitching wise? I haven't been hearing much about him lately but over the winter I know he was a hot draft prospect.
Any word on that?
Were the scouts out at his game?
How was Conant as a team this year?

I heard that Prairie Ridge beat Grant 6-2. Grant doesn't have any players that can give the pitcher any defense. I've seen them play and it looks like there are only 2 good solid players. Stroup and Wallsten the catcher. They are both outstanding baseball players but it takes more than a pitcher and catcher to win a game. Grant just didn't have it this year.
Hopefully they have some good sophomores that will be on varsity next year.
I did hear that the scouts were there.

What's your prediction on the McHenry/Woodstock game?

i was at the shs/chs game last night....austin pitched pretty well....he didnt have his best stuff, but he was hitting his spots with his curve early on....he was consistently hitting 90+ but sometimes got a little wild...SHS did a great job of keeping up with his fastball and waiting on the off speed....not to mention these same two teams played 9 days ago, and CHS started Austin in that game too

crackofthebat,
to answer your other two questions, i know conant had a handful of game rained out so i know they only won about 9, and lost somewhere around 15-18.....but they seem to step up their game a notch when ever they take on schaumburg so it was anybodys game yesterday.....and yes there was a few scouts behind the backstop last night

crackofthebat -
McHenry finds themselves in the tricky position of trying to save Badgley for PR, yet not looking past Woodstock. They better be careful in not looking ahead to the next game. On the other hand, if they do not pitch Badgley against PR, there is no way that they will beat them, in my opinion.

Stroup was 91 on the gun at different times in the game. His off speed stuff was what I was most impressed with yesterday. He was throwing his curve ball a bit too much. He started throwing his change up late...but by that time it was pretty much over. But I thought Kyle pitched yesterday instead of just throwing.

The McHenry game will be interesting only in that the big decision is whether or not McHenry throws Badgley or gambles to save him for the PR game Saturday. I talked to Dan Badgley and they were wrestling with whether or not to start Zach. I think they have a big risk to assess. Either way...PR seems to be in a zone right now.

IMO, you can't win game 2 if you don't win game 1. McHenry better not overlook Woodstock, i am sure they will throw that Brown kid and he's pretty good. It would be hard to beat him without their best.

Nails said it best....worry about game one first !

Okay I will bite, if you feel he threw his curve too much and didn't throw his change until too late what is it that he did to make you say he pitched well and didn't just throw? When he hit 91 was it way up in the zone for a ball.

I'm not sure that applies here. What's the point of winning game one if you are exhausting all possibilities of winning game two and moving further in the playoffs? Besides, maybe they could use Badgley an inning or two in relief today.

Late in the game he started to throw his change up and our guys had more difficulty handling the change of speed. I felt Kyle thre well but got hurt by leaving a few to many curve balls up in the zone. His change ups were down in the zone and he also had the same arm speed which made him more successful. Just my observation.

FYI....I've watched Kyle pitch since he was 11 yrs old playing for Rich Coles...Ican say that he pitched yesterday. No-one ever has doubted his god given talent...it has always been his maturity and poise on the mound. He had it yesterday. I also feel the change up is a better pitch than the curve ball especially with his velocity.