2 0 2 1 Season

It is time to start a new season for the WHAT? Men’s Softball Club and for the first time in a long time, expectations are sky high and for good reason.

This has fans excited, not just because softball is back after the Covid-19 and player holdouts had things looking bleak this past offseason, but also because the WHAT? Squad enters the 2021 season as one of the top teams in not just the Waukegan, but across the entire Lake County.

At the same time, we need to see progress from this group after just missing out on the playoff finals the last several seasons. No longer can the WHAT? Squad use the excuse of playing their season in three different city because of COVID-19.

Summer League Roster

Pitchers	Catchers	Infielders	Outfielders	Utility Players
Aaron Archibald	Alex Rodgers	Alex Ahonen	Ben Hoyt	Bradley Daniel
Ralph Lozano		Connor Fitzgerald	Brad Callahan	Jake Munson
		Drake Larriuz	Jimmy Dubicki	Louie Torres
		Ryan Siembal	Kyle Risinger	Nick Krocker
			Tommy Dubicki	Warren Egan
			Mike Gould	Wyatt Gratz

The Chicago Tournament was epic. WHAT? Sftbll defeated the Good Wood club, 11-8 in the Championship game on Saturday April 3rd. Pitcher Ralph Lozano batted .818 with 15 RBI’s. First basemen Connor Fitzgerald batted .900 with 5 Runs.

It’s tough to call outfield the “deepest” offensive position in softball because every team in your league has two or three OF slots to try to fill every week. However, it might be tougher not to call it the deepest when you see outfielders Tommy Dubicki and Wyatt Gratz dominated in the outfield. As is always the case, the sheer number of viable options seems overwhelming at first glance. But it was clear from the start that both outfielders Tommy Dubicki and Wyatt Gratz could run balls down in the outfield as good as anybody has ever known.

Summer League Stats

#	Poss	TEAM		Gm	PA	AB	Runs	OB	Hits	O.B.P	1H	2H	3H	4H	S.L.G	X.B.	RBIs	KO	BB	A.V.G	O.P.S	RE	RFC	SF	DP	R / G	OB / G	H / G	BI / G
8	P	ARCHIBALD	Aaron	26	95	87	40	55	46	.579	31	8	4	3	.816	15	39	1	8	.529	1.395	1	4	4	2	1.5	2.1	1.8	1.5
9	RC	CALLAHAN	Brad	21	82	77	28	47	40	.573	33	6	1	0	.623	7	28	1	5	.519	1.197	2	3	1	0	1.3	2.2	1.9	1.3
21	LC	DUBICKI	Tommy	10	32	30	10	17	15	.531	14	1	0	0	.533	1	14	1	2	.500	1.065	0	1	0	0	1.0	1.7	1.5	0.8
2	OF	DUBICKI	Jimmy	11	42	42	14	20	20	.476	18	1	1	0	.548	2	14	4	0	.476	1.024	0	4	3	0	1.3	1.8	1.8	1.5
3	1B	FITZGERALD	Connor	29	109	103	41	65	58	.596	40	16	1	1	.767	18	33	2	6	.563	1.363	1	8	3	1	1.4	2.2	2.0	1.2
6	OF	GOULD	Mike	23	78	70	27	47	39	.603	33	4	1	1	.686	6	21	3	8	.557	1.288	0	7	2	0	1.2	2.0	1.7	1.5
14	OF	KROCKER	Nick	25	84	69	23	39	24	.464	20	2	2	0	.435	4	18	3	15	.348	.899	0	6	0	2	0.9	1.6	1.0	1.5
34	SS	LARRIUZ	Drake	25	99	90	53	71	60	.717	32	12	3	13	1.300	28	52	3	9	.667	2.017	2	7	2	0	2.1	2.8	2.4	1.7
13	RF	RISINGER	Kyle	23	83	73	35	50	38	.602	25	7	6	0	.781	13	23	8	10	.521	1.383	2	7	2	1	1.5	2.2	1.7	1.3
22	C	RODGERS	Alex	27	82	74	24	39	29	.476	27	2	0	0	.419	2	24	2	8	.392	.895	2	2	2	3	0.9	1.4	1.1	2.0
28	3B	SIEMBAL	Ryan	29	102	92	31	61	51	.598	37	12	1	1	.739	14	43	3	10	.554	1.337	0	4	4	1	1.1	2.1	1.8	1.5
18	UP	TORRES	Louie	24	80	70	36	58	42	.725	36	3	2	1	.743	6	33	1	10	.600	1.468	6	5	2	0	1.5	2.4	1.8	1.4
33	OF	DANIEL	Bradley	4	11	10	5	5	4	.455	4	0	0	0	.400	0	1	0	1	.400	.855	0	2	0	1	1.3	1.3	1.0	0.3
18	OF	HOYT	Ben	5	18	17	5	8	7	.444	4	2	0	1	.706	3	9	1	1	.412	1.150	0	2	1	0	1.0	1.6	1.4	1.5
50	OF	EGAN	Warren	14	51	51	15	26	23	.510	14	7	2	0	.667	9	20	0	0	.451	1.176	3	5	5	0	1.1	1.9	1.6	1.4
09	P	LOZANO	Ralph	4	11	11	8	9	9	.818	1	0	2	6	2.818	8	15	1	0	.818	3.636	0	0	0	0	2.0	2.3	2.3	3.8
27	LC	MUNSON	Jake	2	9	9	5	6	4	.667	4	0	0	0	.444	0	3	0	0	.444	1.111	2	0	0	0	2.5	3.0	2.0	1.5
5	OF	SANCHEZ	Jason	4	12	11	3	7	6	.583	4	2	0	0	.727	2	8	0	1	.545	1.311	0	2	0	0	0.8	1.8	1.5	2.0
0	SS	AHONEN	Alex	3	11	10	7	7	6	.636	4	2	1	0	1.100	3	5	0	1	.600	1.736	0	0	0	0	2.3	2.3	2.0	1.7
0	UP	BODDEN	Chuck	2	5	3	1	3	1	.600	0	1	0	0	.667	1	1	0	2	.333	1.267	0	0	0	0	0.5	1.5	0.5	0.5
0	OF	GRATZ	Wyatt	4	12	11	5	8	7	.667	6	1	0	0	.727	1	5	2	1	.636	1.394	0	1	0	0	1.3	2.0	1.8	1.3
0	OF	KUSTER	Kevin	1	3	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
0	P	MOXLEY	Ryan	2	5	3	2	5	3	1.000	2	1	0	0	1.333	1	0	0	2	1.000	2.333	0	0	0	0	1.0	2.5	1.5	0.0
0	OF	RUTZ	Matt	2	5	4	3	3	2	.600	2	0	0	0	.500	0	1	0	1	.500	1.100	0	0	0	0	1.5	1.5	1.0	0.5
0	C	SIEMBAL	Darrin	2	9	9	4	7	6	.778	5	1	0	0	.778	1	7	0	0	.667	1.556	1	0	0	1	2.0	3.5	3.0	0.5
29	C	VASQUEZ	Jerry	1	3	0	1	3	0	1.000	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	3	.000	1.000	0	0	0	0	1.0	3.0	0.0	1.2

		Totals		29	1121	1018	423	659	534	.588	391	89	27	27	.745	143	409	36	103	.525	1.332	22	68	31	12	14.6	22.7	18.4	14.1

		STARTERS		29	906	824	331	519	427	.573	314	73	20	20	.728	113	318	32	82	.518	1.301	10	55	24	10	11.4	17.9	14.7	11.0

The 2021 WHAT? season was the team’s 18th season in the Lake County leagues. They finished with a record 9–11, good enough to win the Wheeling Spring League, Wheeling Summer League championship and the Chicago Spring Tune-Up Tournament.

The 2019 WHAT? Softball season was the club's 22nd season in Lake County and 5th in the Mundelein League. They began their season on January 24th with the annual Chula Vista Tournament with a game one victory against Midwest Swing club, to a score of 21 – 4, and finished the season in Mundelein during Fall League with a defeat against Teddy O’Brians squad to a score of 15 - 5.

Most Valuable Player

Infielder Drake Larriuz was named the 2021 Lake County League’s Most Valuable Player by the Softball Writers Associated of America. He received 19 of 30 first-place votes.

Larriuz, 27, was the Rookie of the Year two years ago and is now the MVP. In 2021, he hit .667 / 2.017 with 13 home runs, 52 RBI, 53 runs scored, and 9 base on balls. Among qualified position players in the Lake County, Larriuz and Connor Fitzgerald tied in Wins Above Replacement at 7.8, according to FanGraphs.

Rookie of the Year

Right fielder Jimmy Dubicki was named the 2021 Rookie of the Year as voted on by the Softball Writers Association of America. He received 29 of 30 first-place votes.

Dubicki, 20, made the WHAT? Sftbll club debut on June 22nd, 2021 going ( 1 for 2, 2 Runs ) against the Big O’s Softball club. He finished the season with 20 base hits over an 11 game span while also knocking in 14 runs, scoring 14 runs, and batting .476 over 42 trips to the plate. FanGraphs listed Dubicki with 4.8 WAR, by far the most among rookies.

Lake County Softball is set to return. The area Park Districts informed the teams that players will comply with Lake County Commissioner who imposed outline for a 20-game 2020 season. Players are set report for another version of "spring" training on July 1, and the regular season will start either July 23 or 24, the league announced.

The two sides also finalized coronavirus health and safety protocols.

Limited edition WHAT? Sftbll Player Magazines.

The player magazines reveal the stories behind their personal lives, snapshot and creative minds of some of game greatest ball players, also including personnel interviews from former MVP Tommy Dubicki and Aaron Archibald.

Plus there are all the usual features, including what’s going on in the world of softball next season, the month in sports news and thoughts from the Fans.

Monthly issues are included with all Club memberships and are available by subscription as well as single-copy sales.

WHAT?

2 0 2 1 Season

Summer League Roster

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Utility Players

Summer League Stats

Most Valuable Player

Rookie of the Year