southtownstar.suntimes.com

Baseball: St. Laurence’s Mike Kornacker the Beggars Pizza/SouthtownStar 2013 Baseball Player of the Year

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:23:06 -0500

Mike Kornacker had a season that will be difficult to duplicate. On the mound the St. Laurence right-hander was 7-1 — including two perfect games — with a 0.97 ERA. Five of his seven wins were shutouts. On offense, he hit .421 with 11 doubles, two triples, five homers, 36 RBI and 20 stolen bases. That’s a monster season, for sure. The good news for Kornacker and St. Laurence is that he’ll get a chance to try to duplicate those gaudy stats next season when he’s a senior. Not only that, he’ll also get a chance to repeat one more …

Baseball: Mount Carmel’s Brian Hurry the Beggars Pizza/SouthtownStar 2013 Baseball Coach of the Year

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:07:57 -0500

When Brian Hurry was preparing for his final season of baseball at College of St. Francis in Joliet, he experienced a moment that would alter his life forever. “A light bulb turned on inside my head,” Hurry, now 40, recalled. “Baseball had been in my life since I was 5 years old. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is it. I can’t go without baseball in my life. I have to have baseball in my life.’ ” A fifth-year senior at the time, Hurry already had earned a degree in journalism. Brian Hurry, sports writer? “I decided to shift …

Baseball: Beggars Pizza/SouthtownStar 2013 All-Area Baseball Team

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:02:13 -0500

Here is the 2013 Beggars Pizza/SouthtownStar 2013 All-Area Baseball Team.

Nationwide drivers raise funds for Leffler’s son

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:07:36 -0500

Like any catastrophic news, NASCAR Nationwide driver Regan Smith first heard of Jason Leffler’s death on social media. Leffler was killed Wednesday when the sprint car he was racing slammed into a wall during a race at a dirt track in Swedesboro, N.J. Leffler was 37. “I was in Colorado at the time and, like a lot of folks, I caught wind of it on Twitter,” Smith said. “I didn’t know how it happened, but I knew it sounded like a bad situation. “Jason was doing what he loved. We know the risks that come with that, now we have …

Big day for Aakhus in ThunderBolts’ victory

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:07:02 -0500

The Windy City ThunderBolts took a lot of frustration out on the Southern Illinois Miners on Sunday night. Zach Aakhus drove in five runs and Daniel Cropper tossed eight shutout innings as the T-Bolts salvaged the final contest of the three-game series and snapped a three-game losing streak with an 8-0 win at Standard Bank Stadium in Crestwood. “Every game from here on out is huge,” Aakhus said. “We’ve dug ourselves a hole and it’s important to take every game seriously. It’s hard to say that this was a must-win in June, but that’s almost what it was.” Windy City …

Baranek: Podbielniak a prestigious prognosticator

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:54:52 -0500

I said it last year, and I guess I’ll have to say it again today. I should have listened to Wendy. The Wendy I’m talking about is Tinley Park coach Wendy Podbielniak, the one we had a big story about in Sunday’s paper for being our 2013 SouthtownStar Softball Coach of the Year. Last season she and I had a conversation about which team I should pick to roll in the Class 4A sectionals and go to state. She told me to take Marist. No, she insisted that I take Marist. I took Sandburg. Sandburg went on to lose to …

Marist’s Wyderski is 2013 Jenny’s Steakhouse SouthtownStar Softball Player of the Year

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 02:13:10 -0500

Brooke Wyderski says she didn’t know how to react when not once, but twice, during Marist’s Class 4A sectional final game against Sandburg she was intentionally walked with a runner on first base. “I was not expecting it at all. I had never been intentionally walked, besides one other game in the playoffs,” she said. “It was frustrating, especially in the seventh inning when I wanted to hit so bad. But you have to take it as being respected, as a compliment.” Wait till next year. The 2013 Jenny’s Steakhouse/SouthtownStar Softball Player of the Year most assuredly will be on …

Tinley Park’s Podbielniak is 2013 Jenny’s Steakhouse/SouthtownStar Softball Coach of the Year

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 02:14:07 -0500

If there’s one thing Tinley Park coach Wendy Podbielniak never will pass up, it’s a chance to present a challenge to her players. So it was two years ago when she spied Alyssa Gunther and Alyssa Williams looking at a pretty barren softball banner hanging in the gym. “I said, ‘What are you guys doing?’ ’’ Podbielniak related. “One of them said, ‘There’s a lot of room on that banner.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s for you to fill it.’ ’’ The banner won’t be quite so barren after the 25-8 Titans made their mark in school history with a third-place …

2013 SouthtownStar All-Area Softball team

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:00:55 -0500

Here is the 2013 Jenny’s Steakhouse/SouthtownStar All-Area Softball Team.

Lemont’s Jerantowski is 2013 Chicago Fire/SouthtownStar Girls Soccer Player of the Year

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 02:14:49 -0500

Kim Jerantowski has made a habit out of making defenders look silly, using her dribbling skills to amaze fans with a wide array of crossover moves. There’s nothing she enjoys more. “I just love beating people,” she said. “Dribbling past people is just a lot of fun. My biggest strength is probably dribbling.” Jerantowski, a junior midfielder who’s committed to Northwestern, finished with 21 goals and 17 assists and led a young Lemont squad to a fourth-place finish in Class 2A. Her strong all-around play and leadership abilities helped her earn the title of 2013 Chicago Fire/SouthtownStar Girls Soccer Player …

Lincoln-Way North’s Murphy is 2013 Chicago Fire/SouthtownStar Girls Soccer Coach of the Year

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 02:14:26 -0500

When Lincoln-Way North went into the season after losing a supremely talented senior class in 2012 — a group that included 2012 Chicago Fire/SouthtownStar Girls Soccer Player of the Year Rita Craven, All-State midfielder Jessica Bean and two-time All-Area goalie Michelle Balcerzak, among others — Phoenix coach Mike Murphy wasn’t quite sure what to expect. An outright SouthWest Suburban Red title, a sectional championship appearance and a 15-4-5 finish were not things he saw coming. “I knew we had a talented group, but we had lost so much talent from last year,” Murphy said. “This was definitely a very surprising …

2013 Chicago Fire/SouthtownStar Girls Soccer All-Area team

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:58:16 -0500

Here is the 2013 Chicago Fire/SouthtownStar Girls Soccer All-Area Team.

Miners hand ThunderBolts third straight loss

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:13:23 -0500

The Battle of Bellevue did not go the Windy City ThunderBolts’ way Saturday night. Windy City’s Matt Wickswat and the Southern Illinois Miners’ Travis Bradshaw — both natives of Bellevue, Wash. — squared off on the mound. Wickswat, a former Double-A pitcher in the White Sox organization, struggled as the Miners clinched a series win, running away with an 8-3 victory in front of 2,136 fans at Standard Bank Stadium in Crestwood. Wickswat fell to 2-3 with a 5.75 ERA after allowing five earned runs (six total) on six hits in 51/3 innings. Windy City (9-18) dropped its third straight …

A crazy eight night at Grundy Speedway

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 02:12:51 -0500

Eight features. Eight different winners. Anthony Danta pretty much parroted what all of the others have been saying after capturing Friday night’s 30-lap late-model main at Grundy County Speedway. “You know, the field is really close out here if you look at the times in qualifying,” Danta said. “Even racing, it’s really hard to get spots under green. A lot of the passes you’re making are on the restarts. It’s really good racing here.” It was really rowdy racing during the early going, starting with a Lap 1 incident in Turns 3 and 4 that took out the front row …

ThunderBolts come up empty against Miners

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 02:12:34 -0500

The Windy City ThunderBolts have heated up offensively over the last week, but Friday night they looked more like the team that struggled mightily to score for the first three weeks of the season. A lack of clutch hits was again the biggest problem, as the T-Bolts managed eight hits but could not push a run across in a 3-0 series-opening loss to the Southern Illinois Miners in front of 1,997 fans at Standard Bank Stadium in Crestwood. Windy City fell to 9-17. “Simply put, when we get guys on base, we need to drive them home,” T-Bolts manager Ron …

Southtownstar Athletes on Campus: St. Rita grad Payton named to All-Big 12 Conference First Team

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 02:12:23 -0500

For the third consecutive season, University of Texas outfielder Mark Payton has received a postseason plaudit from the Big 12 Conference. The St. Rita graduate was the lone Longhorn named to the 2013 All-Big 12 Conference First Team. A junior, Payton was a unanimous selection this season after being chosen to the All-Big 12 Second Team last season and the All-Big 12 Freshman Team in 2011. Payton, who was drafted by Cleveland in the 16th round of the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft, led Texas in seven offensive categories this season, including batting average (.393), hits (70), doubles (11), triples …