Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / ‘The dream is to win it’: Illinois Valley has high hopes entering Central Region Tournament

Transcript

‘The dream is to win it’: Illinois Valley has high hopes entering Central Region Tournament · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: The dream is to win it. Illinois Valley has high
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: hopes entering Central Region Tournament. Written by Kevin Schlum, this
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated voice brought to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you by Everlett. For several years, Lance Siebert and others
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: involved in the Illinois Valley Baseball League have talked about
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: their sons someday playing in the Senior League Central Region Tournament.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Now that opportunity is here, the Illinois Valley Senior League
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: team will play in the Region tournament after beating Spring
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Valley to win the District twenty title. The Region tournament
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: runs Saturday to Thursday at Hatfield at Washington Park in Peru.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: We have a goal to go in there and compete
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: at a high level, said Siebert, the team's coach. Obviously,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the dream is to win it and move on to
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the World Series. I know some of us have talked
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: about it for a number of years that when our
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: kids get to this age, we think we've got a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: very strong group of baseball players, and that's the dream
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: we talked about. I know my son and I have
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: talked about it. He's excited about the possibility of doing it.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: This year is the fortieth anniversary of the tournament coming
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to Peru. It's a special opportunity for the boys of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the community, Siebert said, I think it's great for the community.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of people coming to the community and
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: experiencing the Illinois Valley. It's good for the community. This
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: year's Illinois Valley team is made up of several players
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: returning from last year's senior team, along with a group
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: coming up from Junior League after placing second in state
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: at that level. I think there's a lot of talent overall,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Siebert said, Top to bottom, we have guys who can
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: play good defense. We have guys who can hit the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: ball well, and I feel our pitching is very, very
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: deep as well. District play Jack Hermes through a five
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I inning to it shut out with seven strikeouts in
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: one walk. In the second game of dishre Jonathan Kamnikar
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: gave up two runs on three hits with nine strikeouts
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and three walks in five and one third innings, while
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Nolan Siebert earned the win in relief as he gave
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: up two runs on no hits with four strikeouts and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: three walks in one and two thirds innings. Trent Shinky
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: add in Pontoja, Griffin Kellett and others may also see
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: time during the region tournament. Hopefully, we'll be playing a
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: lot of games and we'll be going a little bit
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: deeper with our pitching, Lance Siebert said. Offensively, Illinois Valley
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: recorded nineteen hits and scored seventeen runs in two district games.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: In the two games, Pantoja was four for five with
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: five runs and two RBIs and Shinky was three for
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: three with two runs and two RBIs in the twelve
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: zero win. In the opener, Anthony Turrey was three for
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: four with two doubles, four RBIs and three runs, and
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Espen McFadden went two for three with a triple, two
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: RBIs and two runs. Blake Quinneberg was two for four
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: with an RBI in ivy's five to four win in
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the second game, and Emmett Olson doubled and scored a run.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I would say we have good mix of power and contact,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Lance Siebert said. We have some kids who can pound
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the ball pretty well and we have a lot of
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: good contact hitters. We had a lot of good contact
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: hitting in both games of District. Illinois Valley opens the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: tournament against four time defending champion Burbank American at eleven
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: thirty am Saturday. Burbank is the only team in the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: tournament's history to win the title four years in a row.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: We got a real tough draw in the first round.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Lance Siebert said, we have to play Illinois. It's Burbank.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: They've won the Region tournament the last four years, so
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: that's a tough start. Getting past them is our first goal.