Baseball notes: ‘Late bloomer’ Troy Stukenberg has Lyons in the hunt for West Suburban Silver title

Lyons Township senior infielder Troy Stukenberg didn’t follow a straight path to baseball stardom.

“I was a late bloomer,” Stukenberg said. “I didn’t start playing the game until I was 10. I also wanted to play football but my dad said no.”

Baseball turned out to be the right decision for Stukenberg. He’s one of the leaders on a Lions team in contention for the West Suburban Silver Conference title. Lyons (16-3, 9-2) is riding a hot streak into the final few weeks of the regular season.

Stukenberg, a Saint Xavier recruit, is one of the top performers in a lineup full of mashers.

“The ceiling is the limit,” Stukenberg said. “I think we can easily make a run at state, but right now we’re trying to secure a conference championship and control our own destiny.”

The Lions, who have five seniors and three underclassmen who have committed to play in college, are loaded with talent. Coach Kevin Diete has managed to keep his players focused on the goal of winning the conference.

“The first goal of our team is to win our conference, which is tough considering the three-game series and the talented teams of Downers Grove North, Oak Park-River Forest, York, Hinsdale Central, Glenbard West and Proviso West,” Diete said. “The second goal we would like to achieve is making the Steve Bajenski Tournament finals. This is a difficult tournament that occurs a week before the IHSA playoffs begin and features top talented teams from the west and south suburbs.

“The last goal we like to achieve is making a deep playoff run in hopes of winning a state championship. It’s a tough road but this team is capable of making a run with effective pitching, offensive execution and a scrappy defense.”

Diete said Frederick Ragsdale III, a Kent State recruit, and Stukenberg are two seniors helping set the tone for his program.

“Troy and Frederick definitely went through their growing pains early when they were brought up as sophomores, but I think that’s what has made them mentally tougher to play the way they have been lately,” Diete said. “They have been exposed to this type of talent for the past two seasons. I think that’s what has made them better, plus their hard work ethic and both are striving for greatness.”

Diete said his team’s solid start is based on a core group of players motivated to achieve a common goal.

”The players put in a lot of hard work in the offseason,” he said. “They took the time to get stronger and improve their skills and have shown the mental toughness to battle through the toll the baseball season can have on a player. … This is a group that works hard to achieve their goals. It’s been a fun group to coach.”

R-B on a roll

Riverside-Brookfield hit a turning point in a tough loss to DePaul College Prep in the middle of April. Since the 6-5 defeat, the Bulldogs have won eight games in a row to put themselves in the mix for the Metro Suburban title.

The Bulldogs (12-7, 5-2) look to extend their streak with games lined up against Ridgewood, Westmont and Richards the next three days.

“We have built off that DePaul loss,” Riverside-Brookfield coach Mark Ori said. “We’ve had some timely hitting that we hadn’t been successful with early on. We’ve had our starters go longer, had some positional changes to strengthen our defense and a big factor has been that we’ve limited our walks.”

Junior Cooper Mars is leading the resurgence at the plate, on the mound and with his ability to play third base and first base.

Mars is batting .526 with two home runs and 22 RBIs and won three of his five decisions for a 2.92 ERA.

“Cooper didn’t throw a ton last year, so it’s nice to see him going long in games this year,” Ori said. “We also moved him from the No. 3 spot in the order to No. 2. We adjusted our lineup. He’s making hard contact consistently and driving the ball and limiting his strikeouts.”

The Bulldogs, who have two key conference games against St. Francis early next week, have benefited from junior Joey Garvey’s play at shortstop, which enabled Rex Dockendorf to slide over to second base.

“Joey is an undersized junior who is very smooth in the field,” Ori said. “We were a bit worried about him offensively, but he’s worked hard to shorten his swing and find ways to get on base. His upside on defense has really allowed us to do a lot more with our lineup. He’s very smooth and has a good arm, is competitive and a hustler who does all the little things.”

Nazareth update

Nazareth opened the season by reeling off 18 straight victories despite not playing with a full squad because of injuries. After pulling off a comeback win over Benet in the first game of a three-game set April 24, the Roadrunners dropped their first game of the season, a 10-9 decision to the Redwings the next day. The Roadrunners (20-2) suffered a 10-8 loss to Kenwood on Saturday but defeated Marian Catholic on Tuesday.