Preseason Bubble Teams: Aurora Christian

The Illinois high school baseball season kicks off on March 11, opening day for regular season action under IHSA regulations. Over the next several weeks, leading up to opening day, we’ll be publishing our team previews ahead of the 2019 spring season, touching on programs spanning all state classifications, leading into a countdown through the official PBR Illinois Preseason Power 25 Rankings.

Perennially, we’ve submitted a Preseason Questionnaire to high school head coaches across the entire state. Their responses have been flooding in and we’re using the detailed insight they’ve provided in our team-by-team preseason analysis.

Our 2019 preseason coverage continues today.

Team: Aurora Christian
Preseason Rank: On The Bubble
2018 Record: 33-2
Conference: NAC in 2018; Metro-Suburban in 2019
IHSA Class: 1A in 2018; 2A in 2019
Head Coach: Andy Zorger
Playoff Run: 1A State Champions
2018 Final Rank: 25
Returning Starters: 6
Returning Pitchers: 4

KEY LOSSES

TOP PLAYERS

OUTLOOK

The Aurora Christian Eagles are coming off one of the best runs in 1A history finishing with a record of 33-2 and more importantly hoisting the 1A State Championship trophy. Coach Andy Zorger is returning almost two-thirds of his championship roster and will look to build on a monumental 2018 season.

The Eagles have perhaps one of the best arm in the state in returning Junior RHP Jake Kuntzendorf, #11 ranked player in the 2020 IL class. We saw the 6-foot-2, 210-pound right-hander last spring against Lake Park in which he started at SS and came in relief throwing 4+ innings of scoreless ball sitting his heater in the mid 80s. On the year, he hit .438 with 7 doubles and went 10-0 on the bump with a 1.67 ERA and 105 Ks in 71.1 IP. Fast forward to the Future Games in August, Kuntzendorf opened plenty of eyes topping out at 90 mph with feel for two breakers. There is no coincidence the projectable RHP committed to Purdue a month after later. Coupling with ‘Big Kuntz’ will be a trio of seniors in Sam Tickel, MJ Stavola and Trey Madsen. All were mainstays in the Eagles lineup and made major contributions to the state title run as Juniors. Tickel is an All-State Selection hitting .536 last spring as a LHH INF, Stavola will man centerfield and be the spark plug in the offense hitting .462 last year with 15 2B and 23 SB and Madsen will see time on the left side of the diamond for Coach Zorger hitting .457 as a junior.

There will be some depth questions that will have to play out as the season progresses. Senior RHP Hunter Thompson will most likely be the 2-man in the rotation behind Kunzendorf while Junior RHP Nick Ports and Sophomore RHP Mike Zelko will need to eat innings as well. Both Portz and Zelko could also see time at the plate. Sophomore Declan Palmquist is another young name to watch as Coach Zorger pencils in the lineup card each game this spring.

VIDEO SPOTLIGHT