Prairie Ridge baseball’s potential being realized

CRYSTAL LAKE – Gray skies and rain didn’t obscure Jamie Murray’s vision Wednesday.

The Jacobs' coach knows the caliber of team Prairie Ridge has this season. He’s seen it coming the last couple of years.

Prairie Ridge moved to 8-3-1 after beating Jacobs 9-0 Tuesday in the teams’ Fox Valley Conference opener.

“This group,” said Murray, looking at the Wolves as they raked their field after a muddy mound and persistent rain caused Wednesday’s FVC game to be suspended in the top of the second inning with the hosts up 3-1. “I remember when they were sophomores, and they’ve gotten better and better and better. They’re going to be a problem, especially in [Class] 3A.”

Prairie Ridge’s roster features 13 seniors, including four-year varsity players Karson Stiefer, Brennan Coyle and Riley Golden. Danny Savas, Conner Pollasky and Gabriel Porter have been up since they were sophomores. Two years ago, the six seniors were members of a Wolves team that won a modest 14 games for the second year in a row.

“I saw what they were going to be,” Prairie Ridge coach Glen Pecoraro said. “I was excited.”

Pecoraro has nine players who are committed to playing baseball in college. Golden, a 5-foot-10 lefty who will pitch for UW-Milwaukee, is the Wolves’ lone Division-I recruit.

The FVC is loaded seemingly every year with D-I prospects, and this year is no exception.

“McHenry’s got two potential draft picks,” Pecoraro said of senior pitcher Brandon Shannon (Louisville commit) and sophomore pitcher Kaden Wasniewski. “They’re both 90-mph kids.

“I think our league has five teams that legitimately can make a run downstate.”

That’s why Pecoraro stresses to his players that they need to come ready to play, every day.

“I mean, one of the best [conferences] in the state,” said Millikin-bound Savas, who started the game Wednesday. “Our coach [Pecoraro] always tells us, ‘If you’re not ready to play every day, you’ll get run-ruled.’ ”

Said Murray: “If anybody anticipates taking a day off and getting through something, you’re going to get beat.”

Savvy Savas: Wednesday’s rain at Prairie Ridge wouldn’t relent, and it affected Savas’ footing on the mound. After the righty went 3-0 on Jacobs’ Ryan Tucker, the game was stopped so Prairie Ridge could drop a bag of Turface and rake, which didn’t help much.

When the game resumed, Savas promptly threw ball four to load the bases, then threw the next four pitches to Spencer Drummond out of the strike zone to force in a run. That’s when the game was suspended until 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

“Tough conditions, but it’s fine. It’s whatever it is,” said Savas, who wasn’t going to make any excuses for his sudden lack of control. “It’s a competitive environment, and I love [competing].”

Young and learning: Prairie Ridge scored three times in the first inning Wednesday thanks to four errors, a walk and an RBI single by Maddon McKim.

Jacobs’ roster features six seniors, eight juniors and five sophomores.

“It’s just a young group, and [the errors] are part of the process,” said Murray, whose Golden Eagles are 4-3. “I’ve never been upset with the physical stuff, just the mental stuff, and those are things that happened [in Tuesday’s 9-0 loss to Prairie Ridge]. They’re going to grow from that.”

“This is a fantastic group right here,” Murray said of Prairie Ridge. “They’re a good barometer for us.”

Aiden Stumpf, a senior lefty who will attend Concordia University, started on the mound for the Golden Eagles. His defense had a hard time fielding and throwing the ball in the rain.

“He’s a good little competitor out there,” Murray said. “He’s a ground-ball guy. We just got to make those plays.”