JOLIET – Edwardsville's baseball team was led to the IHSA Class 4A state tournament by a group of seniors who provided leadership to the team when leadership was needed.
Several of the seniors reflected on the events of the season and the weekend following Saturday night's 8-3 Tiger championship game loss to Crystal Lake South.
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“They (the Gators) came to play today and I tip my cap to them,” said Dylan Burris. “They did very well.”
The Tigers' runner-up finish was nothing to be upset about, Burris thought. “It's nothing to hang your head about,” Burris said. “This team's come a long way; I couldn't be more prouder to be a part of this team; all we could do is try to fight back and put runs on the board. We couldn't pull out as many as they did, so I tip my cap to them.”
“This year was one for the books,” said Andrew Yancik. “At the beginning of the year, everyone was saying we weren't going to make it at all; there was no way we could come close to previous years. We fought throughout the whole year. The losses we had, they were really close – we were always in it. Getting second place, it (stinks) right now, but I think we deserve being up here. We did a lot of good stuff throughout the year.”
Not many EHS teams had made it as far as this year's Tigers did; Yancik knew what the Tigers did was one for the history books. “Going down in the history books as one of the five (EHS) teams to (place in the state tournament), it's hard to grasp sometimes. We didn't think we were capable of doing this at the beginning of the year – we just fought through it.
“Ending up coming here and getting second place, it's a great feeling deep down.”
The Tigers responded to the Gators' three-run first with two of their own, but couldn't solve Andrew Engleking past that. “He was keeping us off-balance with his off-speed pitches, just kind of painting the corners, making some good pitcher's pitches,” Yancik said. “I don't think we had our greatest at-bats this whole game – we started out the game pretty good, but as the game went on, I think we just lost it a little bit.
“It was still a good game going down.”
“Coming into this game, I thought we had a good chance of winning,” said second baseman Joel Quirin. “I think we did, but they came out and were swinging the bats well and we couldn't answer. We answered the three runs (the Gators had in the first inning), but they put up eight – that's tough to come back from.”
No doubt there were many teams that would have loved to be in the Tigers' shoes following the game, despite the loss. “We're upset right now just because the season's over and we didn't come out on top,” Quirin said, “but it's still a great accomplishment to second place. We would have loved to have first place, but second place is what we got, so we're happy – we're content with it, but it's still a great accomplishment, especially in (Class) 4A in the state of Illinois; it's pretty tough baseball.”
Quirin has much pride on what he and his teammates accomplished on the year. “I'm so proud of our team,” Quirin said. “It was incredible what we did; at the beginning of the season, there was no way anyone would have predicted us to be here, but we did a great job, I think. Even this loss isn't as big – it's just nice to know these guys are my friends – my brothers, really.
“The past teams we've had – we had the 35-2 team that didn't even make it past sectionals and they (South) were (35-5 going into the final) and we were (36-7 going in the final) and it just shows that, if you bear down and strive for a common goal, you can do anything.”
Yancik may be leaving the program, but he believes the Tigers' future is a good one. “We had some big underclassmen that helped us throughout the year,” Yancik said. “The next couple of years, you can't discredit them at all. Losing a bunch of seniors is always tough; the last two years, when my brother was on varsity, we thought there was no way we could match what theirs had before.
“But these younger guys, they've got a lot in them and they're going to show up next year and the year after that and they're just going to keep going and hopefully, find themselves here like we did this year.”
