HISTORY 2019
It’s Not the End, but Just the Beginning for the WHAT? Men’s Softball.
The WHAT? Sftbll season has come to a close after eliminating Business Casual club 14-6 to win the Mundelein Fall League Championship in 3 games. However, WHAT? fans should be satisfied with their club. Not only did they beat one of the top teams in Mundelein, but they also did it on one of the toughest constraints in the league.
The WHAT? Club finished the year with 30 wins, which was good enough for 2 out of 3 middle of the pact in the standings. The best part of the Club season was their team fielding percentage. The defense had a .852 PCT over the season, which topped most Lake County teams. They were many inning the defense would shut down their opponents, and it was a huge reason why they stayed competitive in ball games.
Cal Haley was another huge storyline for the WHAT? Club. Haley would finish the year with a .711 BA, 19 HR, and 82 RBIs. Haley’s offense sparked the team multiple times and always extended at-bats when he needed to. 24 year old outfielder Tommy Dubicki was also a huge part of the WHAT? Club success. In the month of August, Dubicki had a .769 BA, 4 XB, and 10 RBI. The Gold Glover and MVP, played multi fielding positions including pitcher, none of which posed much of an issue for him. Overall, he hit .600 / .643 / .968 with 15 homers, 15 doubles, 89 RBI, and 115 base hits.
The WHAT? Club were able to put together great defensive games and some great offensive games when needed. Despite being in a very tough division, the Club battled hard and still won games against some top teams. They have definitely proved that last year was no fluke.
You just have to wonder what might have been. When Vic Tuccy arrived in 2018, along with Dan Leganger, Vic Tuccy was the second basemen of the future, but he’s never been able to put together a continuous stretch of health.
Tuccy got healthy enough to play just in time this year, when ball player’s attendance became an issue and the Club really needed a warm infield body, but his continuous injuries had robbed him of much of his former athleticism. For the first time in his career he’s a below average runner (and it was worse later in the season).
And, once an elite player, he’s struggled mightily at second, with a negative rating.
Some teams have trouble naming a starting pitcher since they only play twice a week.
However, in a year where the Club didn’t really have a standout position player (Aaron Archibald led the way for his squad), as easy as we can call him are team MVP. The only question is whether he’ll also be awarded the Lake County Cy Young award winner.
Unfortunately, the fun of opening day would fade very quickly.
After starting the season 8-2, the Club would go on to lose eight out of their next twelve games, and would finish 16-24 on Monday and Friday in the Waukegan summer leagues.
What was there to blame for this disastrous start? Well, no one person could be blamed, player attendance got out of hand and the offense was consistently coming up short with runners in scoring position. It is also worth noting there were a number of rookie players in the lineup, which led to a lot of costly mistakes in the field, giving away scoring opportunities to their opponents. Last but not least, there was certain ball players was also a no-show throughout the season.
It’s easy to look back on these questions now and easily see that they were far better than their win total, but the writing was on the wall at the time too. Seven of their twelve losses were only by three runs, indicating that the team was often one good pitch or timely hit away from having games go their way, at least
they weren’t getting slaughtered. There were bright spots too, Connor Fitzgerald and Brad Callahan were destroying softballs, rookie infielder Brent Fitzgerald was shaping up to be a very valuable member of the team, and Ryan Siembal had almost as many RBIs as he did hits, proving to be a valuable centerpiece to their everyday lineup.
The WHAT? Sftbll Club would overcome these growing pains by the end of September, and would go on a 4-6 stretch in the Fall league and but finished with a Mundelein Park District Fall League Champions. The offence was on fire during this stretch, averaging 15.1 runs a game and outscoring their opponent 45-22. Cal Haley, Kevin Schahczinski, Justin Corona and Ryan Siembal were all on fire during the hot streak, and pitchers Ralph Lozano also managed to come into his own, setting the stage for what could be dominant 2020 season.
On the brink of playing .500 softball, the WHAT? Club were starting to feel like a team that would avoid looking a little mediocre. They were playing inspired and exciting softball at the end, regardless of the result.
The Club looked like a team that, at the very least could avoid placing no lower than a 3rd place finish in the division. A shaky and fragile morale was slowly starting to piece itself back together and this young team was starting to find its place, but could it last?
One thing is certain, and that is the WHAT? Men’s Softball season has proved that this is not the end but just the beginning!