BIG ROCK – The Indian Creek baseball team advanced in the Class 1A Hinckley-Big Rock Regional with a powerful 10-0 victory over Newark in five innings.

The T-wolves cranked out 13 hits and tallied 19 baserunners over four turns on offense. Tyler Swanson was 2-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs.

Swanson has been taking some extra cuts in practice to get himself ready for the postseason.
“I like to put in extra work so I can hit the ball,” Swanson said. “I can get sharp [at-bats] and hit a lot of line drives. It really helps me at the plate. ... I just wanted to produce runs for our team. ... We’ve been putting up a lot of runs lately. If we can produce good defense, then we should win.” — [Photos by Mark Busch – mbusch@shawmedia.com]
Swanson has been taking some extra cuts in practice to get himself ready for the postseason.

“I like to put in extra work so I can hit the ball,” Swanson said. “I can get sharp [at-bats] and hit a lot of line drives. It really helps me at the plate. ... I just wanted to produce runs for our team. ... We’ve been putting up a lot of runs lately. If we can produce good defense, then we should win.”

The Timberwolves also got a strong performance on the hill from junior Raymond Ragan. Ragan only surrendered one hit and two walks to the Norsemen. Ragan also struck out eight in five innings pitched.

“I’m just looking first to get it there,” Ragan said. “Then, I try to paint corners and see what I can do from there. ... If I can throw the ball in there and they can hit it or I get it past them, we get out of the innings quick.”

While Indian Creek coach Kevin Poterek was happy with a run-rule victory, he still saw some things the Timberwolves can improve on before the championship game against Somonauk at 11 a.m. Saturday at Kenny Field.

“There were a couple spots fielding wise where we could have had better body positioning,” Poterek said. “A lot of it was stuff that we could go over not necessarily on the field, but other things we can clean up bench wise, backing up plays, things of that nature. We’ll keep hitting them with tough ground balls, tough plays, tough fly balls. ... The normal stuff I put them through seems to put them in a good spot.

“About halfway to two-thirds of the way through the season, we really started to get into our stride offensively,” he said. “I like to tell them to have a line drive swing, and if you hit it hard, it will go far. That’s what we’ve gotten a lot of lately. And if it turns into a hard ground ball, it makes it harder for them to field. ... The confidence is key. You never know what the ball will do when you put it in play.”

Although this is not the way that Newark wanted to end their season, coach JR Veliz said he has a lot to look forward to over the summer and headed into next season.

“We had ups and downs, but we have a good group,” Veliz said. “We’re young, and I knew we were going to have some bumps and bruises. ... I saw us grow throughout the season. ... We have everyone coming back but one guy [Austin Wiesbrook]. ... We have a lot of guys going into camps and different things like that. ... We’re going to definitely keep them busy.”

By the numbers: The Timberwolves stayed disciplined at the plate, walking five times in addition to their 13 hits.

Beyond the stats: Caleb Cursio made a nice play diving to his left at second base in the third inning, keeping a runner off base when the game still was 3-0.

They said it: “Tomorrow is not going to be an easy day off,” Poterek said. “We’re going to have to face a tough team in Somonauk. We’re going to get back to work tomorrow.”