Putting Disappointing Spring Baseball in the Rearview Mirror

Eleven of the 18 players that currently comprise the American Legion Post 158 baseball team suited up for the Broncos, and they are definitely not happy with how Barrington’s spring season had gone.

“We didn’t do well in the spring, and we don’t hide that,” Legion Post 158 coach Pat Wire said.  “It made us hungry and so we wanted to send a message that the (disappointing) spring season was not us.”

And Wire thinks the statement began with the team’s return to fundamentals.

“These guys came out hard and worked on every fundamental that they could,” Wire said of the Legion team that sits with a record of (17-9, 10-3) as opposed to the dismal 7-27 record the Broncos posted in the spring.  “These guys are trying to get better with every swing of the bat.”  

“Our success is predicated on a couple of different factors,” Wire went on to say.  “We try to have a plan for how we are going to approach the game, we will out hustle everyone, and we will try to chase their pitcher.”

Currently, Barrington is hitting .315 as a team with multiple players batting above .350. 

Not only are they holding down the left side of the diamond, but third baseman Nick Spagnola and shortstop Steve Schwartz are tied with a batting average of .360.  However, they trail outfielder Macray Poidomani who is hitting an astounding .420.

“Honestly, early on we weren’t really hitting so we came out and worked really hard with our coaches,” said Poidomani, who recently had a 12-game hitting streak snapped.  “We just kind of started to have everything flow after our first tournament.”      

Early in the summer season the team finished 3-2 in the Wheaton Tournament.  After that the team hit its stride thanks to the hard work, not only from their hitting but also the pitching.

“Our pitching has been very, very good,” Wire said.

Leading the staff has been Greg Gerrard with his sub 1.00 earned run average, James Rodgers who sits just above 1.00 e.r.a. (36 strikeouts in 38 innings pitched) and Taylor Ward, who after a fine performance against Grant, has lowered his e.r.a. to under three.   

Ward agrees with his coach’s assessment the pitching has helped fuel the recent winning, but Ward also sees other areas of the game that the team has done well all season that has brought about wins.

“This is where we were hoping to see ourselves as a team, and the defense has played a huge part of that,” said Ward after he pitched a shutout in Barrington’s 10-0 (5 innings) win over Grant on July 7 pushing the team’s record to 17-9.  “Today I got lucky a few times on some pitches because (Nick) Spagnola (third base) was able to make some great plays, and (David) Alameda (second base) has been a big help all year.”

“One thing we have really done well as a team, is that when we are down, we bounce right back,” Ward went on to say of the team’s resiliency as one of the other keys to success.

As the season continues to wind down, the American Legion team will spend the weekend in the Northbrook tournament, a great primer for the upcoming playoffs that begin at the end of the month.  With only two regular season games remaining, Post 158 sits in the driver’s seat for a number one seed in the playoffs and hopes of adding to their seven state championships, with the last one in 1995 when Wire played for Barrington.

“Right now these guys are flirting with the best record (the league) has ever had for our region,” Wire said of the team’s finish.  “These guys know that and are trying to beat it.”