Baseball: Yorkville Ready to Get Off the Schneid

At the beginning of the classic baseball comedy Major League, folks from all different socioeconomic classes agree that the Cleveland Indians aren't particularly good.

When an organization struggles and gets a reputation of losing, it can become difficult to shed that image and redefine itself.

Yorkville is looking to do that this season as the Foxes hope to end an eight-year streak of losing seasons. The Foxes last had a winning campaign when they went 22-17 and won a sectional title in 2002.

The team struggled through a 10-24 season last spring.

"We lost a lot of close games last year that could've went either way," Yorkville first-year coach Scott Luken said. "For whatever reason we'd allow the other team to score a couple runs late, and we never had an answer. We just could't find a way to finish games."

But, it's something the team feels can change this season.

"We had a lot of one and two-run losses last year," middle-infielders Derek Piszczek said. "When you're trying to turn a program around and get on the winning track, you have to turn those kinds of losses into Ws, and that's what we're hoping to finally do this year."

Luken takes over for longtime coach Eric Miller. Luken is well-oriented with the program having served as an assistant coach previously. Thus, he has coached many of the players on this year's roster as well as taught many of them at .

Forgetting what happened last year, as well as the program's woes in recent seasons, hasn't been difficult for the Foxes who head into the season with a great deal of confident optimism.

One big reason to be excited stands 6-foot-6. Senior Stephen Toma has already committed to play in the Missouri Valley Conference next season as Toma will take his right arm to Peoria to play at Bradley.

"The dedication this year is unlike any team I've ever been on," Toma said. "Everybody is here to win and not thinking about when things didn't go well. The intensity level is beyond what it's been in past years. And I think we have really high expectations, because we believe in each other and know we should be able to win a lot of games."

The Foxes are carrying 13 pitchers on their 22-man roster this season. Luken isn't sure how they'll all be used, but he's striving to build a staff this season, which is something that just doesn't occur overnight.

"We have a few guys we feel will be at the top," he said. "We're carrying a pretty large squad, bigger than in my five years at Yorkville, and we want to develop a pitching staff so some of the juniors might not pitch at the varsity level, but we'll have a JV schedule that will give them a chance to develop."

Senior Luke Lucchetti will be one of key leaders for the Foxes. He'll likely be penciled in as the everyday center fielder and leadoff hitter. The speedy left-handed hitter will play a crucial role in getting the Foxes started offensively.

"I can go deep in the count and give my teammates a better look at what he's throwing early in the game," Lucchetti said. "I'm just going to try to get on base any way I can, try to steal some bases and try to score the first run in every game."

Getting off to a quick start will be important for the Foxes.

"Lucchetti is the fastest guy I've ever played with and he creates havoc on the bases," Piszczek said. "Having him at the top of the lineup can really get things going. Overall, I think we should be pretty fast and do some hitting and running and stuff like that. Constantly trying to put the ball in play and making things happen."

A fan of the Texas Rangers' Josh Hamilton, Lucchetti admits he could only dream of having the 2010 American League MVP's power, but hopes to set the tone with his speed on the basepaths as well as while covering a lot of ground in the outfield.

"I like our team right now," he said. "We're not a big power team but we're going to put the ball in play and run the bases. We're going to be a big on-base percentage team."

Junior Nick Gillette will find himself in right field or left field on most days for the Foxes.

"Offensively I think we'll be able to score early and often," he said. "Then I think our pitching should really be able to keep other teams down to just a few runs, and if that's the case then we should be pretty solid throughout the year."

Toma gives Yorkville an intimidating ace, while Lucchetti, Gillette, Piszczek, Tanner Cook, Ryan May, Jake Chronsiter, Alex Cosentino, James Edwards, Alex King, Garrett Knox, John Nork and Cory Westphall give the team plenty of depth on the mound. King and Westphall will only get their number called on the mound while the other aforementioned players will also be position players.

The rest of the roster includes Alex Lutterbach, Matt Thill, Blake Werges, Jordan Gingrich, Chris Hill, Ryan Hacker, Josh A. Cooper and Josh M. Cooper.

"We really stress pitching and defense," Luken said. "If we can do that then I think we'll be OK. We've a pretty good pitching staff that's pretty deep but a little inexperienced, but we have a lot of arms. If we can score a few runs and play defense, we'll be in every game."

Pisczek and May will handle the middle-infield, although which will play shortstop and second base hasn't been determined. Jacob Mathre is coming back from off-season surgery but should be ready to play first base. Toma might also spend some time at first base when he's not on the hill.

A few positions (namely one of the corner outfielders, third base and catcher) are yet to be determined as the Foxes head into the season opener at Sandwich on Tuesday.

Yorkville hopes to contend for a title in the new Northern Illinois Big 12 conference. It's opposition won't really be anyone new to the Foxes. Playing in the East division, the Foxes are familiar to former conference foes DeKalb, Kaneland, Rochelle and Sycamore.

The Foxes will battle the Knights on April 25, 26 and 28.

"It's four other teams from the old conference and then adding Morris who we're familiar with," Luken said. "We're going to focus on being competitive with those schools. We were in a lot of those games against those school last year but just couldn't finish. We'll try to find a way to finish those games."

So while the program has had a history of losing, the Foxes are ready to turn things around quickly this spring, just like Jake Taylor, Pedro Cerrano, Willie Mays Hayes and Wild Thing Ricky Vaughn did in Major League.

"We think we can be the best team out there," Gillette said. "We should have a chance in every single game that we play."

Having a chance is one thing, but now the Foxes truly believe they will win a lot of them.

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