Richwoods Regional

iversonfan13 wrote:

big six ball wrote:they are pretty classless..unfortunately their pitching coach leads the way, just rude. there really is no place in baseball for an adult to heckle high school kids in a baseball game.
I have never seen a worse team talk more junk in my life. It's one thing when hunter pitches but the rest of the staff is poor. we pounded them twice and shoulda/coulda have beat hunter. this does not surprise me at all

Have you been to a Limestone game in the last 2 or 3 years? Especially this year. They talk more trash than I have ever seen for a high school team and on parent even made the comment "It is high school baseball, the kids are allowed to talk trash".

I think B6 means that Galesburg is a lousy team and still talks trash....Limo at least can back it up a little. That being said, I dont like the trash talk by any team good or bad

actually we played limestone and they did not do much- of course they were getting beat so that could be the difference.
galesburg ran their mouths badly..including coaches! ...I think the clammed up a bit as they losing many games.
the worst team we faced was alleman, they were rude and got personal. even made rude comments to the coach. they had many complaints from many teams.

JB...I agree with what you said! Also I am glad to see Richwoods win their regional and I am hoping they can find a way to go to state! Its gonna be tough but I truly think they can do it!

If anybody had told me before the season that RW would go 11-1 in conference, win 20 games, and get to a sectional....I'd probably have disagreed with that. Now to get to state, I'd love it but dont see it. We may have the pitching, but we dont have the offense up and down the order like the other teams that are left. We'll see, Bloomington is going to be a tall order

jim beam wrote:If anybody had told me before the season that RW would go 11-1 in conference, win 20 games, and get to a sectional....I'd probably have disagreed with that. Now to get to state, I'd love it but dont see it. We may have the pitching, but we dont have the offense up and down the order like the other teams that are left. We'll see, Bloomington is going to be a tall order

The kids just have to focus on the next game. You never know what will happen in the state tournament. I would love to see Richwoods baseball at the state tournament and if they can get there.... I will be there!

salz4life wrote:

jim beam wrote:If anybody had told me before the season that RW would go 11-1 in conference, win 20 games, and get to a sectional....I'd probably have disagreed with that. Now to get to state, I'd love it but dont see it. We may have the pitching, but we dont have the offense up and down the order like the other teams that are left. We'll see, Bloomington is going to be a tall order

The kids just have to focus on the next game. You never know what will happen in the state tournament. I would love to see Richwoods baseball at the state tournament and if they can get there.... I will be there!

When was the last time RHS went to state in baseball?

Great question. According to my research Richwoods placed 2nd in 77-78. In 79-80 they made sectionals. In 82-83 they made it to quarterfinals and sectionals in 83-84.......Then nothing until 06 sectional. So the last time they went to state in baseball was 83 and prior to 06 they hadnt won a Regional in 23 years. Pretty unbelievable.......I mean 2 regional titles in 3 seasons hasnt been done sine Ty Franklin was coaching at Richwoods

Interesting stuff -- thanks for taking the time to check it out. Personally, I don't find the void at State-level appearances nearly as surprising as the drought in regional titles (or the length of time between conference titles). Maybe somebody can help me out here, but I honestly don't remember the last time a Richwoods team could boast of having a lights-out, lock-down pitcher. There have been "decent" hurlers, to be sure. But.... who can recall the presence of a sure-fire ace? The closest I can think back to would have been Klusendorf when his arm was still sound. Once he injured it playing hockey, that was the end of his days on the hill. There have been good competitors since then, too; but nobody who was near an "absolute" each and every time he toed the rubber.

Turnit wrote:Interesting stuff -- thanks for taking the time to check it out. Personally, I don't find the void at State-level appearances nearly as surprising as the drought in regional titles (or the length of time between conference titles). Maybe somebody can help me out here, but I honestly don't remember the last time a Richwoods team could boast of having a lights-out, lock-down pitcher. There have been "decent" hurlers, to be sure. But.... who can recall the presence of a sure-fire ace? The closest I can think back to would have been Klusendorf when his arm was still sound. Once he injured it playing hockey, that was the end of his days on the hill. There have been good competitors since then, too; but nobody who was near an "absolute" each and every time he toed the rubber.

You are right..... in '95 and '96 (my junior and senior years) we had a few solid pitchers but not a guy that we could send out and guarantee a win and that was a big issue for us. It was probably a big reason why we were basically a .500 team those two years. Mike Penca, from my class, could've been. He was clocked in the high 80s and could hit 90..... but he probably still has never heard of the thing they call a strike, so he rarely saw the mound.

The 92 Knights were supposed to be really good. They didn't do much. Several key players also played basketball on the team that placed second in state. Not sure if the lack of Spring training or lack of focus after basketball season played a part in their final record. Dan Sutter tied the Knights homerun record that season.

Salz-did you pitch with my cousin Corey Hawes in 95?

I played against both Hawes and Penca, both great hitters but we always seemed to hit them well. Can't remember any of the scores but it was always a heated game when we played richwoods.

I graduated in 2005 and i remember Shaw and Hogan (cant remember the first name) always being tough, but not lights out like has been said. I dont know much about the area in the past since im the oldest kid in my family, but from my experiences playing against RHS, Hogan and Shaw were pretty tough to beat.

To go along with the trash talking discussion, i also feel there is no place in the game for it. I understand if a game gets heated things may be said that shouldnt be said. But it is starting at a younger and younger age now. I used to ref soccer in the parochial league and on multiple occasions had to pull both teams aside with coaches and tell them to quit jawing at each other, and that was a 5th and 6th grade soccer game. I admit, when i played i got a little heated and i regret the things i said and/or did to try to win a game. People in charge need to know where to step in and draw the line, and coaches just arent doing it like they used to. Stuff like that would NEVER, NEVER happen in any of the programs i have ever been involved in.

94 Knight wrote:The 92 Knights were supposed to be really good. They didn't do much. Several key players also played basketball on the team that placed second in state. Not sure if the lack of Spring training or lack of focus after basketball season played a part in their final record. Dan Sutter tied the Knights homerun record that season.

Salz-did you pitch with my cousin Corey Hawes in 95?

Yep, I played with Hawes at RHS in '95 and then at ICC in '97. Corey is a good guy and I hung out with him a lot at ICC. How is he doing? I haven't seen him in a couple years. I think the last time I saw him was just in passing at Avantis.

Celtic 50 wrote:I played against both Hawes and Penca, both great hitters but we always seemed to hit them well. Can't remember any of the scores but it was always a heated game when we played richwoods.

Penca and Hawes were polar opposites. Penca just threw gas while Hawes was a "location" pitcher. He didn't throw hard, but when he was on his game and hitting his spot, he was an excellent pitcher. It did seem like there were times were Penca would be hit hard. If I remember right, while he threw very hard, there wasn't a lot of movement on his fastball and his offspeed stuff was not as good. Basically, if you could time Penca and be patient, he was hittable.

Corey and his wife will be having their first child in mid June (a girl) so all is well. He and I can spend hours talking about what we would do if we managed the Cubs!