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Friday, March 29, 2024

2016 Benet Baseball Season Preview

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What has more significance – a regional title in the spring or the program’s first trip to the IHSBCA Phil Lawler Summer Classic?

For Benet, as it prepares for 2016, the answer is both.

“I think they were both very important,” Benet coach Scott Lawler said, “because it had been a while for winning a regional and I think the two years prior – we had really good teams. And for last year’s team to win the regional and get to the sectional final, I think our guys were like, ‘We need to achieve that.’

“Then in the summer, Benet’s program has never been to the summer state finals and qualifying for the Elite Eight – I think it’s just for our program something that we would like to achieve in the future more often. I think, once you do it, I think it becomes easier for the program to make that something you want to make consistent.”

On the heels of coming away with the program’s first regional title since 2008 in the spring, the Redwings rode their starting pitching to the brink of a summer state title.

During that summer state run, Mike Dunn, Joey Christensen and Sean Gallagher combined to throw 29 1/3 innings of two-run ball in five straight victories.

Christensen’s revelation as a potential top-of-the-rotation guy behind Dunn was on full display in summer state tournament victories over Metea Valley and St. Charles East – allowing one run while fanning 18.

Alex Analitis will join Dunn, Christensen and Gallagher in the rotation after throwing last spring before being shut down in the summer.

“We feel like we have at least eight or nine guys that can go out there and will do a good job for us,” Lawler said.

Offensively, a deep group of juniors – led by Alec McEachern, Erik Jones and Marty Dosen – give Lawler reason to feel good about his lineup.

McEachern had three hits and seven RBI combined in Redwing victories over Metea Valley and Wheaton North during the IHSBCA Hinsdale South Regional.

Jones hit .429 with five homers and 29 RBI for a Redwing sophomore team that won the East Suburban Catholic Conference title in 2015.

Dosen, meanwhile, had a pair of multi-RBI games in the summer state tournament against Wheaton North and South Elgin after hitting .278 in the spring for the sophomores.

That trio of juniors will join seniors Danny Sobolewski, who hit .284 last spring, Alex Tassos, who hit .405 in the summer and catcher Jake Barnhart.

“Last year, I thought we had a nice run at the end of the year,” Lawler said. “And we did certainly lose a lot of talented people from last year. On paper, it doesn’t look like we have a lot coming back. But this group might be the most athletic and the most depth I’ve had in my lineup one-through-nine that I’ve had since I’ve been at Benet.”

Three straight 20-win seasons have followed a 19-win year in Lawler’s first season in 2012.

Given the postseason success the program has experienced within the last year, a fourth straight 20-win campaign is almost an expectation.

“We have a very competitive and gritty varsity baseball team right now and I think the competitiveness showed in the summer,” Lawler said. “I’d expect the same out of our guys this spring and I can already see it now.”

 

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Blake Baumgartner
Blake Baumgartner
Raised in Naperville, Blake Baumgartner is a 2001 Naperville Central alumnus and a 2005 graduate of Michigan State's School of Journalism. Since March 2010, he has covered football, boys' basketball and baseball for both The Naperville Sun and Positively Naperville. Follow him on Twitter @BFBaumgartner.

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