Back from hiatus

With baseball season just three months away, I will begin posting on our Streaks baseball blog.  Again, the purpose of this forum is for information  about all things related to GHS baseball and high school athletics in general.  Soon, I will have our off-season workout schedule posted and hitting times available.

Go Streaks! 

Post 285 earns state birth with 3rd division championship

Galesburg was already assured a spot in the State Tournament because they are the hosts for the 6 team tournament that starts Wednesday at Jim Sundberg field, but they showed some character and fought through some tough conditions in Jerseyville to win 3 out of 4 games including the final championship game over rival Rock Island.

The final state tournament field is not yet set because of some bad weather in the cook county tournament. Elgin will play either Palatine, Arlingotn Heights, or Elk Grove at noon Wednesday, Rock Island will play Matoon at 3:30, and Galesburg will play Alton at 7:00 pm.

Post 285 overcomes first round defeat from Quincy, Wins 5th straight district title

Post 285 showed some character and the ability to overcome some adversity to win 5 elimination games in 3 days. It took a total team effort which included complete game pitching performances from Tyler Farrell and Tim Rossel on Saturday as well as clutch game winning hits from Seth Morling and Jesse Hines during the tournament. The biggest blow of the tournament was probably the 2 run homerun off the bat of Nate Olin that tied the elimination game against Quincy in the 8th inning Friday.

Galesburg moves on to the 3rd division tournament at Jerseyville's Illini Middle School. Galesburg opens against Eldred on Tuesday at 3:30 pm. This is the same team that defeated Galesburg in the opening round of the division tournament last year.

Tuesday's schedule at Jerseyville includes three games, opening with Washington vs. Rock Island at noon. The winner of that game comes back at 7 to take on Jerseyville. The tourney continues with games at 3:30 p.m. and 7 on both Wednesday and Thursday with the title game set for noon Friday.

District 15 Tournament starts Tuesday at Canton

Post 285 finished the regular season with a record of 30-10. We open up district play against a quality Quincy team at 1:30 pm in Canton. The winner will face Farmington at the same time and place on Wednesday afternoon.

Military Night Wednesday against Moline

Wednesday night at 7:30 pm at Sundburg Field, Post 285 will host Moline in a match up between the defending state and Great Lakes region champion and the 20 - 6 Galesburg Post 285 team. This will be a good warm up for the top level competition at the Leo Brunner Invite this weekend at Moline.

Pizza House Meet and Greet Tonight

Post 285 Baseball will be hosting a meet and greet tonight from 5:00 - 8:00 pm at the Pizza House. Please help support Post 285 Baseball and enjoy some great food and talk with the players. We greatly appreciate your support.

Post 285 has successful Wheaton Tournament, Washington Tournament this weekend

Galesburg Post 285 went 4-1 this weekend facing some of the best teams in the region at the Wheaton Tournament. Galesburg's only loss came in the opening game of the tournament in a 7-6 loss to Midland Michigan which won the Legion National Tournament in 2009. Tim Rossell, Nick Milligan, Colton Crain, and Chris Fields all had strong starts and wins for post 285.

Post 285 also swept Farmington Tuesday night, and beat Oneida earlier tonight. The rest of the week's schedule includes 6:00 pm @ Geneseo Thursday, and 5:30 pm Friday night against Macomb at Sundberg Field.

This weekend's Washington Tournament schedule is Sat 5:00 pm Matoon, 8:00 Washington, Sunday 12:00 Rock Island, 3:00 Limestone.

Tonights game against Peoria has been cancelled

Tonight's game, has been canceled due to wet field conditions and more poor weather forecast for tonight. We will resume playing with a 9 inning contest tomorrow night at 5:30 at Canton.

Review of Week 1

We just finished our first full week of the 2011 season with a home split of a doubleheader with Milan. It has been probably the most interesting opening week in the 4 seasons that I have been a coach for Post 285 Baseball. We currently sit at 9-4 as we have a couple more games to tune up for the Wheaton Tournament this weekend.

MLB Draft

Congratulations to former Galesburg High School and Post 285 pitcher Kyle Hunter for being drafted for the third time. He was taken in the 31st round by the Seattle Mariners. Tyler Farrell, who just finished his senior year at GHS and is currently playing for Post 285 was also drafted in the 43rd round by the New York Yankees.

Legion sweeps Geneseo in the home opener

In a rematch of the 2010 district championship game, Galesburg was again victorious over Geneseo with wins of 11-1 and 9-4. Tyler Farrel threw a 5 inning no hitter while allowing an unearned run in game one while Logan Scott earned the win in game 2 with Nick Hull picking up the 9 out save.

Legion Splits at Milan

After Post 285 showed some rust in its season opening 6-0 lost to Farmington last night, our bats finally showed some life in game 2 of the Saturday doubleheader at Sherrard High School. Post 285 lost the opener 5-2 and won game 2 by a score of 15-2.

Galesburg American Legion Baseball opens tonight at East Moline

Although the high school baseball season ended far sooner than we would've liked, the summer offers a new beginning to 18 baseball players who hope to open up the season tonight weather permitting. I will put up a schedule and roster soon. Here is the link to the register mail's season preview.

Not the way we envisioned

I needed to wait a day to write this.  It would not have been productive if I tried to write about the game last night.  Too many emotions involved.  Disappointment at the way we played.  Anger at the officiating.  Sympathy towards the guys leaving.  Embarrassment at the way we chose to react to tough situations.  Sadness because of the fact that I may not get to see a few of these guys again for a long time.  And what will make this worse is that next week, when I am at the field and getting it ready for the sectional games, I will go through all of these emotions again.  It truly is a disheartening situation.  However...

10,000 Hits on the blog!

I would like to say a big thank you for those out there still reading.  It has been an enjoyable endeavour for me to do this blog.  I hope that it has been, and will continue to be, a source of information and entertainment for the readers as they follow Streaks baseball.  I hope to continue seeing your support as the Streaks will attempt to achieve their most important goal of the season...to make it to Joliet.

Go Streaks!

Regional Game is postponed

We will play tomorrow at 4:30 in Geneseo.

Streaks finish regular season with a loss to PND

In a perfect scenario, I would like to win every single time out.  Competitiveness is a driving force not easily removed for some people.  (It can also cause problems...ask my wife)  Ideally, the coaches would like to go into the post season on a high note.  That didn't happen as the Streaks lost to PND by a score of 4-0...running their regular season record to 26-9.  However, in this particular situation, I think the bigger picture was more important than the individual game.

Streaks Classic Weekend Post

I am going to keep this post very short.  The Streaks went 2-1 in our own weekender.  We lost to Dunlap 7-4, beat Springfield Southeast 18-0 and won a wild one against East Peoria 16-15.  Obviously we have our issues right now handling the baseball.  We hit rock bottom (hopefully) against East Peoria on Saturday.  We don't know any other way to fix it except to just keep at it.  It is a 100% sure thing that the coaching staff will not give up...and that is all we want in return. 

For some reason though...I have a different feeling after the E.P. game.

 Like things are about to turn around.

 I hope so.

 See you on Monday versus PND (yes again)!

Go Streaks 

Sophomores end season at 14-14 with loss to Moline

We battled back and made it a competitive game, but the early 4-0 hole that we dug ourselves was too much to overcome a solid Moline team. With the loss, we end the season with a 14-14 record.

Galesburg defeats Peoria Notre Dame

On a beautiful May evening, Galesburg got by Notre Dame by a score of 12-3.  Austin Gernant got the victory while the Streaks ran their record to 24-6.  The victory was not without its problems though...

Bats Go Cold as Sophomores Lose Final Home Game to Canton 5-4

Jake Hannam got the start for Galesburg and threw pretty well after a shaky first inning where he surrendered 3 runs to the Little Giants. Our offense responded by scoring a run without having a hit in the first inning. We remained hitless until the 6th inning when we had 4 consecutive hits to start the inning including an RBI double from Chans Sugden. Our bats again went cold as we popped the ball up in the infield 3 times and struck out looking to end the game. On the day, we struck out 12 times, several of them looking. We saw some decent pitching last night, but it wasn't as good as we saw last Thursday or will see tomorrow against Moline. We need to get better at putting the ball in play and forcing the defense to work.

I look forward to seeing most of you at the banquet tonight and at our final game of the season tomorrow at Moline.

Weird baseball play poll

I have coached high school baseball now for the better part of 10 years.  Though not as long as other coaches, I feel like I have witnessed just about anything that can happen on the field.  This season, though, has presented a multitude of situations that are...for lack of a better word...very weird. 

Galesburg versus Macomb

Tonight the Streaks defeated a nice Macomb Bombers squad by a score of 6-1.  This moves the Streaks record to 23-6.

Streaks rained out at Metamora

Galesburg was washed out after two innings of play at Metamora Friday.  We have also learned the Metamora has cancelled their weekend round-robin altogether.  So, coach Gonzalez has worked some magic and added a couple of games to our schedule starting tomorrow. 

Galesburg will play U-High at home tomorrow starting at 12:00.  It is scheduled for one game but could turn into a double-header.  The coaches will discuss that more tomorrow.  Also, we are playing Macomb High School on Monday at home starting at 4:30. 

It is so important that we keep playing games.  We need to establish some rhythm and get our pitching staff some work.  If the weather holds off, this will be a very good thing for us.  Also, nobody will be complaining about not having to ride to bus to Metamora.  If you have nothing going on tomorrow, come out and take advantage of an unscheduled home game.

Go Streaks!

Sophomores Lose 2 to Moline

We lost 2 tough, hard fought games to Moline on Thursday night. This was the series that decided the sophomore conference race with each team coming in with only 1 conference loss. Sadly we ended up on the wrong side of a 5-1, 1-0 sweep. Carson Cheesman and Drake Sykes threw well, but Moline was able to capitalize on some defensive miscues in each game to score enough runs for Defrieze and Brill who both threw complete game victories. Brill threw a no hitter in game 2 while walking six.

We haven't seen any pitching this year that was anywhere close to as good as we saw lastnight. We need to get better at fighting off tough pitches and putting the ball in play with 2 strikes. We get a chance to improve tonight against East Peoria.

Galesburg versus Moline

First of all, sorry for the delay in this post...the blogger site has been down for about the last 24 hours. 
Secondly, I am going to keep this short and sweet. For those not there, Galesburg was swept by scores of 6-2 and 1-0.   The coaching staff is, of course, disappointed in our performance yesterday, however, we are extremely proud of the efforts that our kids put forth.  It certainly was not an attitude or effort deficiency that caused the losses.  Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way.  And, that was truly the case on Thursday evening.  Especially game two.  Congratulations to Nick Milligan for throwing his first career no-hitter.  He deserved better.

"Sometimes you gotta lose before your win"   We will be better because of these games.  They are disappointed as I see them walking the halls today.  But, they are going to stick together and come out better in the end.  Thanks for a fantastic showing of support at Sundberg Field.  Our guys deserve it.

Go Streaks

Some interesting stats about the big game

Here are the conference rankings in a few interesting categories.  These are courtesy of qconline.com

Streaks defeat PND

Like coach said...it wasn't pretty but the job eventually got done.  Galesburg beat Peoria Notre Dame by a score of 17-9. 

Some pictures from our trip to Wrigley

What an enjoyable game.  (Except for the Cubs' loss)  It was nice to hear that this was the first visit to Wrigley Field for some of our guys.  Whether you are a Cubs fan or not, it is a piece of baseball  history.  I hope our guys enjoyed the day. 

Here are a few pictures I took from our trip to Wrigley Field on Sunday.  Enjoy

Varsity earns the sweep at Alleman

It was an absolutely perfect day for baseball!  And, the performance of  the Streaks on the baseball field matched the quality of the day in general as Galesburg defeated Alleman by scores of 14-2 and 10-5.  

Sophomores Sweep at Alleman

Two strong pitching performances led to a sweep over Alleman including 10-2 and 6-4 victories that leaves Galesburg with a season record of 14-9 and 5-1 in the conference heading into Thursday's doubleheader with Moline.

Sophomores Need Extra Innings to Beat UT

After building a 4 run lead in the rain through 2.5 innings, the weather cleared up and our bats went cold as we only managed 1 run over the next 4 innings and with a couple of walks and defensive miscues found ourselves tied 5-5 after 7 innings. We found a way to get out of our funk and score two in the 8th to win 7-5.

Tough night for the Streaks

On an afternoon where not much seemed to go right, from the weather to our play, the Streaks dropped a non-conference game with U.T. by the score of 4-1.

Doing some field work

Here are some photos of our guys doing a little field work last week.

Sophomores Defeat Richwoods at Home

Getting to play at home for just the 5th time in 20 games this season, we responded well against Peoria Richwoods scoring 9 runs in the 2nd inning and winning 11-0.

Streaks defeat Morton 3-1

On a day that seemed like winter was making a final attempt at hanging on, the Streaks bats were just as cold.  But, it was just enough as Galesburg moved their record to 19-3 with the victory.

Prep Baseball Report Rankings 05-02-11

Galesburg moves up to #14

"JV" game scheduled with United for today has been cancelled

Sophomores Salvage Split at Rock Island

Everything was looking pretty good going into the bottom of the fifth inning of game one. We were up 6-0 thanks to 4 solid innings on the mound from Carson Cheesman and clutch hits and agressive baserunning up and down our lineup. Then in the fifth inning we reverted back to some of the bad habits that we've had in previous games and allowed Rock Island to tie the game up thanks to a couple errors, walks and 2 hits. We regrouped to take the lead 8-6 only to give them five more runs in the bottom of the inning and lose the game 11-8. Luckily the rain that they were calling for never came and we had a chance to redeem ourselves and win game two 22-10.

Stats are updated through Friday's double header with Rock Island

Streaks sweep the Rocks

In order to beat the weather forcast, the Streaks travelled to Rock Island on Friday night rather than the traditional Saturday morning contest.  Galesburg handled the change in routine well as they completed a two game sweep of Rock Island to move their record to 18-3.

Streaks get by Richwoods

Galesburg defeated Peoria Richwoods tonight by a score of 5-4 in 8 innings.  Andrew Steck walked with the bases loaded to record the game winning RBI. Defensively Galesburg committed 0 errors which is what we are most happy about.  Tomorrow we play our conference double header with Rock Island at 3:30.  Sorry to keep this so short but there will be much more baseball to write about after the weekend.  Hope to see you all at Rock Island.

Go Streaks

Sophs get to play and beat Mercer County

After only playing one game over the previous 14 days, we finally got to play last night against Mercer County. It was the first time that I had witnessed a baseball game in Aledo and I was impressed by the quality of their field that allowed us to get the 5-3 victory in despite all of the rain that we have had lately.

Dedication and commitment

The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do.
- Thomas Edison


The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.
- Andrew Carnegie


Good team players don't pick and choose when they will be dedicated or committed to the cause.  They just are.  Every game.  Every inning. 

Streaks "tripped up" at Metamora

The Streaks travelled to Metamora on Tuesday and were defeated by the score of 5-4.  The loss put an end to a 12 game winning streak and moves Galesburg's record to 15-3.

Another Schedule Change!!!!

This weekend's double-header date with Rock Island has been moved.

Prep Baseball Report Rankings (04-25)

Double Header with Moline moved again to 05-12

Right now the conference double header with Moline has been moved to Thursday, May 12th.  This double header will begin at 3:30. 

(JV game cancelled today..."Added" Game Tuesday (4-26)

In an effort to keep our kids playing through what has to be the most brutal two weeks of weather in my coaching career, Coach Gonzalez has added a game with Metamora tomorrow at 5 p.m.  It will be at their place and the kids will leave from the school at 3:00.  It may be the only window of "semi-dry" weather for the most of this week.  Metamora could possibly be a sectional opponent for us again this year so if you can make it...we will see you there tomorrow.

Sophomore Schedule Changes

Due to unplayable conditions on the varsity field and a scheduled home soccer game on Tuesday, the home game against Washington has been cancelled. Thursday's game at Peoria Notre Dame has also been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict.

Games with Moline postponed today

As I am sure most of you know now, our games with Moline have been postponed.  With the varsity field still unplayable, our alternative was to move it to the sophomore field. 

Sophomores Lose 10 - 9 in Extra Innings

We finally got to play after an 8 day layoff and wound up losing 10 - 9 in 8 innings to an 8-1 Washington team.

Streaks win in "unconventional" fashion against Richwoods

On Thursday evening, the Streaks moved their record to 15-2 with a 12-8 victory over the host Richwoods Knights. The win was not easy however as Galesburg battled back from an 8-0 deficit.

Video of a high school baseball game

Check out this video of a play at the plate during a high school game in Mississippi.  This is not how we teach it...but it worked.

Stats are updated

Check out the pages on the right hand side.  The stats are up to date and I have added separate pages for conference statistics.

Varsity Baseball vs Richwoods is postponed to tomorrow

Alumni Game Cancelled

The alumni baseball game that was scheduled for this coming saturday following the varsity doubleheader has been cancelled due to lack of participants.

New Prep Baseball Report rankings

Anybody up for a little Bulletin Board Material???

Check this out from the qconline newspaper on the Moline vs. Alleman game.  Notice the emboldened parts.

A little extra motivation to come out and watch...in case it's needed.

Galesburg versus Quincy

The Galesburg Silver Streaks completed a sweep of Quincy last night on what was an otherwise miserable evening.  The weather played a factor especially in the second game where the Streaks won 7-2.  Galesburg won the first 9-3.

Baseball games at all three levels cancelled today

Quincy Game is Postponed

The Varsity conference games with Quincy have been rescheduled to Monday at 3:00 pm in Quincy. The sophomore games will not be rescheduled.

Game against Quincy

Both the sophomore and varsity games have been postponed tomorrow until 1:00.  The varsity will be leaving at 8:00.  Stay tuned for more information as I get it.

Games today

Both sophomore and varsity games at Metamora are cancelled.  We will not be leaving tonight for Quincy.  We will keep you posted on the plan for tomorrow.

Pictures

Here are a few random pictures from the season. 

Sophomore Stats Page has been Added

I have finally had a chance to go back and enter in the stats from a couple games where we had some technical difficulties with the stat program in the dugout. Please keep in mind when viewing these stats that these are not the goal of our players or our team. These stats are not a true reflections of how well or poorly we are executing on the field. There are times when we make a great pitch and the hitter fights it off for a bloop single. Other times we will make a poor pitch that the hitter will chase out of the zone or maybe one right down the middle that the batter hits right at a fielder for an out. That's the nature of baseball. The results cannot always be controlled by the player.

That being said, some of these stats are disturbing to me. We are walking way too many hitters, striking out too much, and have given up way too many unearned runs. We need to improve these 3 areas if we are going to have a successful season.

Sophs Struggle at Pekin

After putting up a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, Pekin was able to score the next 10 runs with the help of a few errors, a couple walks, mixed in with a couple timely hits. We struggled offensively staying back against their pitcher who did not throw very hard, but threw strikes and allowed us to put the ball in play without much authority. One of the few bright spots for the Streaks tonight was seeing Ryan Carl go 2-3 at the plate in the 14-4 loss.

Streaks beat Alleman at Monmouth College

On a fantastic day of weather, the Silver Streaks defeated Rock Island Alleman at Monmouth College by a score of 6-1.

Prep Baseball Report Rankings

I don't think any coach puts much stock into rankings.  Baseball is especially tough simply because of the influence a pitcher has on a game.  In basketball/football the "all state" point guard, or the "all state" quarterback play in every game.

Sophomores Win at Alleman

We came out of the gate swinging tonight scoring 4 runs in the first inning and held on for an 8 to 6 win.

Stats

Stats are updated through our double header on Saturday.  Once we play another conference dh, I will also start posting conference game stats on a separate page.

Radio Broadcast for Alleman game

If you cannot make it to Monmouth College tomorrow to watch the Streaks play Rock Island Alleman, then you can still catch the radio broadcast on 1590 WAIK.  Beau Spencer will be doing the broadcast.

Sophomores Sweep UT to Start the Conferernce Season

After working all morning to get the field ready, it took 6 innings for our bats to finally wake up. Trailing 2 - 0 entering the bottom of the 7th inning, Drew Diaz led off with a single to center. Ian Milligan flied to right for the first out. Ryan Osborn followed with a walk. Drew Nall laid down a bunt to try to move the runners into scoring position, but UT was able to get the force out at third. With 2 outs and runners at first and second, Drake Sykes got us on the board with an RBI single to score Osborn. Jake Hannam followed with a big 2 out hit to the right side to score Nall and tie the game. Tanner Guss followed with a ground ball that was fielded by the UT shortstop and thrown to first, but the first baseman was unable to hold on and Sykes who didn't hesitate coming around third scored easily for the win.

Carson Cheesman did a nice job on the mound after a shaky second inning and only gave up 2 runs in 6 innings of work. Jake Hannam came in and threw a scoreless 7th to pick up the 3-2 win.

A great start to the Conference season

The coaches, Jon Hendricks, and even some dads arose early Saturday morning and headed to Sundberg Field.  What they found was a very wet and unplayable surface at 7:00 a.m.  For all their hard work the Streaks took the field at 1:00 and swept U.T. by scores of 10-0 and 3-2. 

Conference Doubleheaders Against UT Have Been Pushed back to 1:00 pm

The opening Saturday of Western Big 6 conference play at Galesburg High School has been pushed back to 1:00 pm due to wet field conditions.

A little video evidence...

I was watching this video on Beau Spencer's website (http://www.ihssn.net/) and I couldn't help but notice how our guys are executing what we have worked on all year in the cage.  We let the ball travel and take it the other way.  See for yourself

We Need More Alumni Game Participants

Right now, I have only had 2 former players let me know that they want to participate in the Alumni Baseball Game on Saturday, April 23rd following the Moline conference doubleheader at Sundberg Field. This is a great opportunity to come out and watch some great baseball and meet up with your high school teammates. Click on the Alumni Game flier link on the right side of this page for more details.

Limestone Defeats Sophomores

We've got in a bad habit of having of one bad inning defensively each game lately and tonight wasn't any different. The score was 1 - 0 going to the top of the third inning after a missed opportunity to put some runs on the board in the bottom of the first when we made 3 errors defensively and walked 4 batters. Combine that with a couple of seeing eye singles and we found ourselves down 9-0 when the inning finally ended.

Stats

I have finally been able to post our stats.  They are located as a separate page on the right hand side of the blog.  Offensive and Pitching stats each have their own page.  A big thank you goes to Rob Strack for maintaining these for us.  The stats will usually be updated on a game by game basis and will normally be one game behind.  Enjoy

Streaks survive Limestone

Tonight the Streaks defeated Limestone by a 7-4 margin.  We improved our record to 9-2 with the non-conference victory.  While we are happy about the win, this game like many others, illuminated things that we need to get buttoned up before heading into the bulk of our schedule.

Schedule change

For next week the Monday game with Alleman is moved to Tuesday and it will be played at Monmouth College.  The J.V. game scheduled on Tuesday will be moved to Monday.  That is a home game against Bushnell Prarie City

Pete and Pick

    I wanted to try something a little different with this article.  While, I have enjoyed writing about our team and their accomplishments, this blog has given me an avenue to do some things I normally wouldn't get a chance to do.  So, I decided to interview Pete and Pick.
    If you are a fan of GHS sports in any way, you know who these two guys are.  They have made themselves fixtures at many GHS athletic activities.  In this article, I decided to combine two passions of mine...history and baseball.  These two provided the history of GHS athletics and we also talked about this years baseball team.  I asked just a few questions and they were kind enough to humor me and answer.  Both of these gentlemen have been friendly and supportive of me since I got here.  This is just my way of thanking them and I hope you enjoy reading about the "guys under the tree" at our home baseball games.

Video of an exciting play during the Invite

To set this up, Limestone (in the field)is leading Normal U-High (batting) 2-1 in the bottom of the 7th.  There are two outs and a runner on first.  This was possibly the most exciting play of the tournament.  It even resulted in two ejections, a player and a coach.  Watch this!

Trying something new

I am going to attempt to "embed" some video that Beau Spencer took of the Streaks.  Beau  has given me the instructions so I hope I can follow them successfully.  You know, I never thought I would meet someone as excited about high school sports as myself. But Beau is a nut! 

Lower part of the order gets it done for the Streaks

It was the lower third of the lineup that had success
as the Streaks defeated a tough Rock Island Alleman team Saturday night.  With the win the Streaks claimed the "Streaks Invite" title and move their record to 8-2.

     All year long, we have been able to almost just bank on the fact the the front part of our order is going to "place the table" for us.  Dalton, Luke, and Zack  have done exactly what they are asked to do offensively and more.  You will hear no complaints about those guys from me.

Sophomores Split at Canton

After a dissapointing effort  on thursday night in 7-0 loss at East Peoria, we came out with a little more energy today at Canton. Drake Sykes started the day off right with a leadoff homerun that he had to sprint around the bases for because there is no outfield fence at Canton's sophomore field. Sykes also did a nice job on the mound only giving up 2 runs in 6 innings of work. We struggled offensively with the curveball and a moving strike zone. We need to get better at fighting off the tough pitches and jumping on fastballs early in the count. This will help us score more than just 2 runs off of very average pitching. We lost game one 3-2 when Canton put together 3 consecutive singles to break a 2-2 tie in the 7th inning.

Late nights

It has been a bunch of late nights in a row for the Streaks.  As I am typing this it is about midnight so I am going to keep it short for now.  But for those who were not in attendance, the Streaks defeated Rockford Guilford 12-9 and United Towship 5-4.  When I get a chance, and when my computer screen is no longer blurry from the lack of sleep and the dust in my eyes courtesy of the wind, I will post stats and comments on the two games.  The Streaks will play for the championship against Alleman at 7:00 Saturday night.  Hope to see you there.  It is supposed to be a great day weather wise.


Go Streaks!

Pictures from the game against Pekin

Thanks to Mrs. Steck for sending some pictures!  Here are a few...

Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!

Coming soon will be my first human interest piece published on this blog.  I am calling it "Pete and Pick".  I am sure you can figure out the subject matter and you wont want to miss it. 

Also, now that we have six games under our belts, I am going to start publishing offensive and pitching stats.  I waited because the numbers are obviously skewed when we have so few at bats.  That should be done in the next couple of days.

Thanks for reading and tell your friends about this site.  Our guys deserve the notoriety.

Galesburg versus Pekin

Tonight the Streaks defeated the Pekin Dragons by a score of 10-0 in five innings.  We got to see another dominant performance by Tyler Farrell as he moved his record to 3-0 and kept his ERA at 0.00. 

Pictures wanted!!

I am looking for any pictures that you might be taking at our games.  I would like to spice up the blog a little and am finding it difficult to get pictures taken during the games.  My wife cannot make many of the games do to her work schedule and our camera is a little suspect at that.  So, if you are taking pictures of your son, take some of other players to and send them to me.  I will use these throughout the season.  Also, Troy, I notice you taking video.  I figure out a way to display video on here too.  So, if you catch an exciting or controversial play, send it to me in a jpeg or mpeg file.  I will publish it here.

Here is the email that you can send these to and I would be very appreciative.

Thanks

jkmstreak@hotmail.com

Streaks rebound against East Peoria

For those that came to East Peoria Wednesday afternoon, they were able to witness what I feel to be the most complete game the Streaks have played all season.  Galesburg beat East Peoria by a score of 6-5.  Some interesting things occurred in this game.

Galesburg versus Washington Part II

As you could probably infer from my previous post, the Streaks were defeated by the Washington Panthers for the second time in just 10 days.  This time by the score of 7-6.  What makes this loss a little tougher to handle is that we jumped out to a 5-0 lead behind solid starting pitching by Austin Gernant and a huge base emptying triple by Zach McCrery. Reliever Colton Crain ran into the "meat" of the Panther lineup in the fifth and struggled through a walk and an error on the infield. 

Tough Loss at Morton

We started out well against Morton before falling 11-10 in 8 innings. Drake Sykes threw 3 shutout innings and we had a big 5 run second inning to get up 5 - 0. While trying to save pitching for Saturday, I took Drake out in the 4th inning and put in Carson Cheesman. I failed to make sure that Carson had enough time to get ready and he didn't. Carson wasn't sharp and we didn't help him out defensively behind him as we gave up 8 runs in the inning. We battled back offensively and scored enough runs to win the game, but we again failed to make some plays defensively that led to them getting 2 more runs in the 5th inning.

Gotta get better

I will keep it short for now as i am on the bus and still a little emotional. We need to back up our pitchers...and we need to keep the pressure on offensively with a lead. We did neither tonight and we paid the price.

Galesburg's Invite schedule

Ok, here is Galesburg's schedule for the Invite. I will try and post a complete tourney bracket if I can figure that out later this week.

Streaks beat the Leafs

Galesburg defeated Geneseo on a chilly Monday night at Sunberg Field by a score of 12-3. Tyler started and got his second win of the year. Because of the cold, and the busy week ahead, we used four different pitchers tonight. All of them did a great job. Timmy ran into some bad luck after a couple of walks, we were not able to bail him out with help defensively. That again was our glaring weakness. As I have said, we will pitch and we will hit...but we need to continue to work on handling the baseball. This will be a point of emphasis for the remainder of the year. Happy now to report our record is 3-1. I will begin to post our stats, both offensively and pitching, on a separate page once we have at least five games in.

Sophomores Win at Geneseo

The sophomores won 9 - 1 at Geneseo last night. We got off to a slow start offensively, but Jake Hannam was able to pitch out of a couple jams and throw 4 scoreless innings for the win. Tanner Guss rebounded from a shaky outing last time out and only gave up one run in throwing the final 9 outs for the save. Drake Sykes led the streaks going 4-4 with a triple. Riley VanVelsor added a 3-4 effort also with a triple.

Bundle up!!!!!!!

It looks like we get to play baseball today!! High of 44 but sunny and little wind. Come out and support your Streaks as they play Geneseo. Also, I have been alerted to a mistake on the schedule...today's game is at home.

Sophomore Game Saturday at Morton is Postponed

Saturday's scheduled doubleheader at Morton has been postponed to 4:30 pm Tuesday 3/29 @ Morton High School due to the cold weather and will now only be a single game. We will still have practice tonight from 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm. We will not have practice Saturday or Sunday.

Varsity game against Canton

I just received word that the game against Canton for today is cancelled. Practice is at 1:30. Should be done in a little more than an hour. This weekend does not look good either. Stay tuned for more info on that to come.

Sophomores rebound from home loss to Macomb with a win at Sherrard

   Tuesday night we struggled throwing strikes again in the first inning and dug ourselves a 4 run hole in the first inning. We got within 4-3, but wound up falling 7-5. We struggled to get the big hit to finally get over the hump and tie the game up. Tanner Guss led the streaks with 4 of the team's 9 hits including a bunt single.

    Tonight we regrouped against Sherrard. We got a quick 2 run lead in the first after a lead off double from Drew Nall, a ground ball to the right side from Carson Cheesman to move Nall to third, and a single from Chans Sugden to drive in Nall. Chans later scored on an error. We still struggled in the first inning on the mound with Carson Cheesman walking in a run, but he settled down and threw 3 shutout innings after the first.
    The game was still 4 -1 until the 4th inning when Nate Perez reached by walking to lead off the inning and Drake Sykes followed with a drag bunt single that was fielded by the pitcher and thrown into the right field corner to score Perez from first base. Sykes scored one batter later on a sac fly from Nall. In the sixth inning the rain and cold really came and Sherrard struggled to throw strikes and field the baseball. The final score wound up being 16-3.

I'm looking forward to working on some different things at practice tomorrow. Hopefully we get a chance to get outside.
   

Galesburg versus Dunlap

The light sprinkles that came down during the game tonight didn't hinder the Galesburg offense in the slightest. Zach McCrery led the way offensively which is what we need him to do. His effort also included our first team homerun as the Streaks won tonight 12-2. It is fun to watch our team when they play like they did tonight. Everyone seems to feed off one-another. It is true what they say...hitting is contagious. Personally, I am glad to see that we are putting good swings on the baseball. But, in an effort not to become satisfied, I hope to see us continue to work on getting better defensively. Tonight, we improved on our 4 error game on Saturday and committed just one. I know we can hit, and I know we can pitch, (as evidenced by the effort of Chris Fields and Austin Gernant tonight), but if we are to become complete, we need to field the baseball on a consistent basis. As the infield coach, I take a personal pride on how well we field the ball. And, I believe, that in order for us to win against a real quality opponent we need to play error free ball. I was impressed with Zach Riley as he got his first start at Shortstop. We need to continue to have guys push everyone around them to become better defensively. I know the weather does not look good for this weekend. I hope we get a break so that we can keep playing. Keep coming out to support your Streaks. It is good to see the amount of fans we have at our games

Sophomores Win at Dunlap

Despite walking 12 batters and committing 3 errors, we found a way to win Monday night. Tough mound conditions gave our pitchers problems over the first 5 innings, but Jake Hannam finally found control on the mound and held Dunlap to only 1 run over the last 3 innings.

Drew Nall and Ian Milligan led the way offensively with 2 hits a piece including doubles in the 8th inning. Drake Sykes also had a double in the 8th and was later scored by Nall.

We learned some more about our team tonight and we'll find out how we play at our own field tomorrow night at 4:30 pm against Macomb.

Sophomore Baseball Opening Weekend

It was a beautiful day at Blodgett Field on the Knox College campus. Moline finished the day 2 - 0, Normal West finished the day 0 - 2, and Galesburg finished with a split at 1 - 1.


In game 1, Moline jumped out to an early 2 - 0 lead after 3 innings. We answered with 3 runs in the 4th inning after a lead off triple from Ian Milligan and an RBI ground out from Jake Hannam. Drake Sykes then reached base on a bunt single, then stole second base and was driven home by a single from Drew Nall. A single from Carson Cheesman moved Nall from first to third and Nall scored the go ahead run on a wild pitch. Moline answered with runs in each of the last 3 at bats, with two more of those runs reaching base due to walks. We failed to score with a runner at 3rd and one out in the sixth and failed to score after having runners at first and second with no one out in the seventh inning.

Moline threw a strong left handed thrower Dallas DeVrieze who struck out 6 hitters in 3 2/3 innings with a good sophomore curve ball and finished with Matt Brill who struck out 4 with a little more velocity. Our pitchers struggled a little more with the tall mound at Blodgett field and walked 7 batters, 4 of which ended up scoring.

In Game 2 Moline beat Normal West in an exciting extra inning contest.

In Game 3 we dug ourselves out a 4-1 hole that was created by 4 fielding errors. We were able to get the offense going in the third inning thanks to another bunt single from Drake Sykes, that was followed with a stolen base, a single from Chans Sugden and a double from Drew Diaz. After tying the game at 6 in the 4th inning, The floodgates opened in the fifth after Milligan and Riley VanVelsor reached on an error and a walk and Hannam followed with a bunt single. After another error that scored 2 runs, Sykes followed with a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third and Nall drove in a run with a sac fly.

We still struggled on the mound, walking 6 more hitters, but it was good to see our bats come alive. I think our players are starting to buy into the small ball concept of bunting and running and putting pressure on the defense. We still have a lot of work to do on the mound and in the field, but I'm encouraged by what I saw Saturday.

I would like to thank Knox College for letting us use their facilities, Officer Luna and the freshman that helped run the concession stand, and the parents for helping with the players' meals between games. Hopefully the rain will hold off and we'll be able to make some more progress on Monday night at Dunlap.

Opening Weekend

It was nice to get to play baseball this weekend. Galesburg came away with a split on Saturday. Normal West and Washington left this weekend at 2-0. The previously mentioned Streaks and Western Big Six teammate Moline finished Saturday at 1-1. While Rockford Guilford and Pekin played competitively, but finished 0-2. First things first...Moline suffered a scare as one of there coaches suffered a seizure as they were warming up for their first game. He was taken to the hospital and when I talked to a Moline player later in the day, I was told they believed it to be diabetes related. This player said that he was expected to stay under observation and be released the next day. Hopefully all is well with him. Makes one realize how trivial the game of baseball really is. My take on Saturday: Game 1: Tyler was dominant. Our bats did what they are supposed to against decent pitching. Defensively we were ok. Game 2: Two thoughts...runners left on base and 4 errors We found out that we are not invincible. And, I think that is good for us to learn. Washington made every routine play on defense, and a couple of really good plays (especially by their shortstop). And that, ultimately, is what the difference in this game boiled down to. I am happy that our guys got to see that. It is the most glaring area that we need to improve and if our guys are willing to put in the work to get better defensively, we will come out on top in the games like this in the future. I am confident that we will.

Room for Improvement

I once had a coach tell me..."The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement" I am not sure what we can take away from the JV game tonight except that it was another chance to improve. A lot of guys got some swings and we had someone other than ourselves hitting baseballs back at us. A few important days of practice coming up. We aren't exactly ready yet...but we are getting there. Come out Saturday (I will post a schedule tomorrow) and watch us as we look to improve some more. Think positive thoughts about no rain!!!

Meet the Streaks

Thanks to all those who braved the cold to support our Silver Streaks. Also thanks to those who brought the Gatorade's/etc. for us to use during the season. It is much appreciated. We saw some things we liked tonight, and of course, some things we need to work on. It was obvious that the pitchers were ahead of the hitters tonight...and that is to be expected. But, for the most part, we threw strikes, handled the baseball, and put good swings on the ball. I can't wait to see this team when we fire on all cylinders. Sometimes, you have to field a team that is out-gunned from the beginning talent wise. I don't see that being the case this year. But, we will need to be able to respond to adversity and stay mentally and emotionally tough. And how we do that remains to be seen. How will our guys respond to a bad at-bat, a throwing error, a base running mistake, a base on balls? It will all become clear as we head into our season. We as coaches, are hopeful that our experiences from last year and the ones to be had at the beginning of this year will pay dividends. We are excited. Brave the cold and come out as we play our first opponent in a JV game tomorrow at 4:30. Looking forward to the progress we make tomorrow!

Dates to remember

Here are some important dates to remember concerning Silver Streaks Baseball news and happenings. March 9th Pizza House Fudraiser 5-8 March 11th & 12th HyVee Bagging for Donations Fri. p.m. and Sat. a.m. March 13th Varsity parent meeting 4:00 (tentative) in the cafeteria at GHS March 14th Meet the Streaks (Fr./So. at 4, Varsity around 5:30) Bring a Sports drink or Bottled Water for admission March 15th Season opener JV game against Abindgon 4:30 March 19th Opening Weekend Tourney TBA March 25th and 26th Spring Break Invite TBA March 31st-April 2nd Streaks Invite May 20-21st Streaks Classic (Varsity parents to run 50/50 and grill out at the Invites/Classic) Go Streaks

The Goal

As practice has started, I thought I would remind all of the common goal...to get here!

Congratulations

Congratulations to Coach Massey and the girls basketball team. Though it was not the ending that we wanted, the elite 8 is still a fantastic accomplishment. This was an amazing season to watch and a true example of the success that hard work, selflessness, and teamwork will bring.

Good Luck

The baseball team would like to wish good luck to Coach Massey, his staff, and the Streaks girls basketball team today in their Super Sectional game.

GHS Baseball Alumni Game

The Galesburg High School Baseball program will be hosting an alumni game on Saturday April 23rd following the conclusion of the varsity doubleheader with Moline. Click on the Alumni Game Flier page to the right for more details.

Streaks Look to Build on Last Season's Elite Eight Finish

The Streaks finished last season with a 26-14 record that included a sectional win over a 29-7 Streator team before ending the season in a supersectional loss to DeKalb who went on to finish 2nd in 3A. The Streaks will return most of last season's contributors including Tyler Farrell and Nick Milligan who have both signed letters of intent in the off-season to continue their baseball careers at Western Illinois University.

 The Streaks begin tryouts on Monday, February 28th, and begin the regular season on March 19th with games against Washington and Normal West.