North Clay Will Take On LeRoy At 1A State Baseball Tourney Friday

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Published on June 1 2022 9:40 am
Last Updated on June 1 2022 10:17 am
Written by Millie Lange

North Clay High School is headed to the Class 1A State Baseball Tournament for the first time in the school's history.

The Cardinals will square off against LeRoy at noon Friday at Peoria's Dozer Park. In the opener at 10 a.m., Mount Sterling Brown County will meet Ottawa Marquette.

North Clay/Clay City is coached by John Frech. Frech started his coaching career at Mascoutah in 2003 and spent a year there before coming to Clay City High School and coaching for six years. He took over at North Clay in 2011 and the Cardinals co-op with Clay City. In his 10 years at North Clay he has a 197-81 record.

Members of the North Clay/Clay City squad are seniors Brady Ingram, Carson Burkett, Dakota Weidner, Holden Clifton, Donnie Zimmerman, Landon Frye, Bryton Griffy, Collyn Ballard and Layton Dawkins.

Juniors are Logan Fleener, Daniel Warren, Alex Boose and Matt Sullens. Sophomores include Miguel Blazquez, Aiden Jones and Jesse Weidner. Freshmen are Evan Clifton, Jacob Hoyt, Gavin Hosselton and Keegan Sullens.

Leading the Cardinals in hitting is Griffy with a .416 average. He's had 42 hits and 41 RBI. H. Clifton has a .380 average with 41 hits and 40 RBI while Fleener is at .378 with 37 hits and 26 RBI and Ballard is at .360 with 41 hits and 37 RBI.

The mound staff includes Burkett who sports a 7-3 record, throwing 53 innings, allowing 47 hits, only seven walks and 44 strikeouts and H. Clifton with a 5-2 record in 27 innings, allowing 26 hits, six walks and striking out 36. Ballard is 3-0 going 19 innings allowing 14 hits, eight walks while striking out 22 and Boose with a 2-0 record, going 19 innings, allowing 17 hits, 13 walks and striking out 13.

The Cardinals have nine seniors on the team along with three juniors.

The Cardinals are 31-6 on the season. After losing the second game of the season to Lisle Benet Academy, the Cardinals had a 13-game winning streak. before suffering a loss to South Central. They went on another streak, this one, a seven-game winning streak.

North Clay won its own regional championship then claimed the Effingham St. Anthony Sectional and the super-sectional at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

The Cardinals averaged 10.5 runs in the 37 games they played and gave up 3.0.

North Clay will take on LeRoy, a team that is also making its first State Tournament appearance.

The Panthers sport a 24-9 record, winning the Roanoke-Benson Regional, the Bloomington Illinois Wesleyan University Sectional and the super-sectional, also at Illinois  Wesleyan.

Wayne Meyer has been the coach at LeRoy since 1996 and sports a 412-208-1 record. 

Leading the Panthers offensively is Blake Roundtree, a senior, with a .444 average. He has 44 hits and 30 RBI in 99 at-bats. Porter Conn, a senior, is next at .374 with 40 hits and 29 RBI whle Noah Company, a junior, has a .322 average with 29 hits and 17 RBI and Tanner Holoch, a senior, with a .320 average, 33 hits and 34 RBI.

Roundtree is also the leading pitcher. He has a 6-2 record with 42 innings pitched allowing 33 walks while striking out 72. Calvin Crawford is next with a 5-2 record allowing 29 hits, 18 walks while striking out 39. Conn and Company are 3-0 while Ian Johnson is 4-3.

LeRoy has seven seniors on the team along with eight juniors. The Panthers average 7.8 runs per game and have given up 3.4 runs a contest.

The winners of the two games Friday advance to Saturday's championship at 11:30 a.m. Saturday while the losers drop into the third place contest scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday.