Zack Burling is entering his third year as the head coach of the Illini West baseball team.
Graduated were three seniors that played some pretty big spots offensively in his line-up, but they didn’t pitch much. That means the Chargers will return its entire pitching staff from last year’s team.
“Which is a very big plus considering how much success we had on the mound last year as a team,” Burling said. “Having one more year of being battle tested. Those guys will be hungry and throw some quality innings for us this year.”
Wyatt Link played third base for the Chargers last season. Kaleb Crenshaw was the first baseman and Drake Mudd played in the outfield.
“Those were three big pieces in our line-up. And they were our most consistent hitters. When we needed those seniors to lead they did a good job at leading by example,” Burling said.
The nice weather in the preseason enabled the team to take a lot of fly balls, grounds balls and batting practice compared to years past when they had been inside a gym for the first two weeks, the coach noted.
“I remember the first year I coached, we didn’t get out on the field until the first game,” he recalled. “So we were out on the field four out of the five days we could have practiced.”
The baseball team played four games the first week of the season March 11-15 and were victorious against Triopia 8-1, Barry Western 18-0, Brown County 7-2 and Bushnell Prairie City 6-0. Their only loss came at Mercer County 10-8. They since have defeated Rushville/Industry 9-8, got a no-hitter from Ethan Carlisle in a 15-0 win over Biggsville West Central and shut out Central at Camp Point on April 4, 7-0. The Chargers defeated Payson 9-1 Friday, April 5, at home.
Senior Colby Robertson will play shortstop and some second base and will bat in the top three of the batting order.
“He likes to go gap-to-gap and he is one of our best defenders,” Burling noted. “He is one you don’t want to miss if you are coming to watch the Chargers play baseball. Because he is going to stick out. Stealing a lot of bases and making great plays at shortstop. Getting those hustle doubles.”
Lucas Finch will be in the outfield most of the time.
“He has a lot of speed and a good glove,” the coach said.
Haydon Rankin will be in the starting rotation. “And he might get a few chances to hit a little this year,” Burling added. “He has been swinging it well the first couple weeks of practice.”
Reece Shoup is another one of the top pitchers in the rotation.
“He was a bulldog for us last year,” said the coach. “He threw a lot of innings and threw against a lot of good teams.
Also in the rotation will be Nick Bruns, a unanimous all-conference pitcher as a sophomore.
“He is a lefty. When you can throw three pitches for strikes, that’s a good thing. And you add in he’s left-handed that is very unique, because there are not a lot of left-handed pitchers in the area who can locate three pitches,” Burling stated.
Ethan Carlisle became a huge part of the rotation as a freshman.
“Which was surprising” the coach said. “We wouldn’t think somebody would take that big jump after a year-and-a-half of organized baseball. He got a lot of experience last year and faced QND in his first appearance and they were ranked second in 2A in the state at the time. He struck out the side. And two of those three guys went on to play college baseball, which was a cool moment for Ethan.
“You add in Wesley Robertson, and Nick Johnson came on in relief later in the year and he has some good stuff,” Burling continued. “And we have Max Kinnamon, he throws the ball pretty hard and he has a really good secondary pitch with his curve ball, so he is going to throw quite a few innings for us.”
The numbers are great with 37 players total. Some of the guys are dual sporting with track.
“Those numbers are between varsity and JV. You have 18 positions available,” the coach said. “And over half the guys are going to be sitting at some time and that makes each practice a competition to see who could see the field the next game.”
Burling’s assistant coaches are his brother, Luke Burling, who will work with the pitchers and the corner infielders, and Sean Grosinic, who also has experience as a pitcher for John Wood Community College and is the head JV coach. All three of them were teammates on the John Wood baseball team for one season. Tyler Bruns will be an assistant coach for the JV and kind of act as the bench coach.
This year’s team is eager to start strong and finish strong.
“I can see us winning a regional this year and we are also in a new conference and I can see us getting over the hump into that 20-win mark. We want to get one percent better each day in practice and in our games,” Burling said.
