Standout pitcher Villasenor cracks 100-strikeout barrier.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The Addison Trail baseball team hit a milestone during its recent Class 4A regional quarterfinal victory over West Chicago.
In the 11-1 victory over West Chicago, standout pitcher Nick Villasenor struck out 10 and upped his season strikeout total over 100—a rare feat for a high-school pitcher.
Villasenor finished the season with 104 strikeouts and only 10 walks in 58 innings. He went 5-1 with a miniscule ERA of 0.83. He gave up only three hits in the West Chicago game.
Addison Trail benefited from a four-run first-inning outburst against West Chicago.
“Nick hadn’t seen four runs in a long time,” said Addison Trail coach Mike Kennedy. “It was nice to see him get that support. He went out there knowing his teammates had the game. When he hit 100 strikeouts the guys on the bench let him know about it. He didn’t know he was at 100. They were cheering for him. It was nice to see him get that. One-hundred strikeouts is pretty awesome.”
Villasenor is headed to Black Hawk College in downstate Illinois.
The Blazers then lost to Geneva in the regional semifinals and finished the year with a 14-16 overall mark.
In addition to Villasenor, Simon Marinelli and Trevor Fulmer earned all-West Suburban Conference Gold Division honors.
Marinelli finished the season hitting .398.
“We started a lot of underclassmen — juniors and sophomores,” noted Addison Trail coach Mike Kennedy. “They came through for us. You could see their maturity level increase throughout the course of the year. I saw them mature as leaders and turn into young men. We saw them take the next step. That’s one of the cool things about coaching this age. You see guys go from 15-year-olds to 18-year-old men. Seeing that transformation and seeing the drive they have is one of the best things. We saw them turn into great respectful young men.”
In addition to Villasenor, Kennedy noted George Neri is looking to play the sport in college. Bobby Daniels will continue his athletic career at the next level, but in football and basketball at Aurora University.
“It’s nice to see all these kids go onto college in some aspect,” the coach said.
Kennedy noted he’s hopeful this season will act as a springboard to even more success next spring, despite the fact the Blazers lose some key components.
“Trevor Fulmer will be back and he looked good this year,” he said. “Yes, we’re losing players such as Nick and we’re losing Ricky Perez who hit in the three-hole for us. We’re losing Jack Kalbas and Bobby Daniels and George Neri. We have some holes to fill, but the current junior class that will be seniors and the sophomore class coming up won’t have a letdown. There are some good players there. We will build off the success we had this year and will keep adding to the foundation of this program. We went 14-16 this year and I think we lost three extra-inning games and another four, five or six one-run games. If you look at it like that, we’re a hit away from winning some of those games and maybe you are looking at a 20-win season. The next step is expecting to win those close games and we will get there.”
Kennedy noted the team will take a different approach to the summer season this year, with work being done Monday through Wednesday with practices on Monday and Wednesday and a summer-league game on Tuesday.
“We’ll play one day a week and the other two days will be camp stuff,” he said. “The thing is we don’t get to practice a lot once the season gets going. This way we can take some time to go over stuff and learn the game a little more. It will keep us fresh playing only on Tuesday. We’ll cut back a little bit and that will help the guys recover, plus they will get a chance to work on their swings. A lot of these guys are playing five, six and seven games a weekend with their travel teams and don’t get to practice a lot. If there is something wrong with their swing, they have to fix it on the fly. This will give them a little better opportunity to work on some things during an hour-and-a-half or two-hour workout.”
