Prep Baseball Report

Weekly Diamond Notes


By Andy Sroka & Drew Locascio
Illinois Staff

In our second edition of the season’s Weekly Diamond Notes, a collection of submissions for the PBR Illinois Player of the Week honor, we have nine prospects who fell just short of the POTW award. Ultimately, Hononegah’s big righty Tyler Statler (2019; Southeast Missouri State commit) was given the honor, after striking out a staggering 30 batters in 12 innings without allowing a hit. It’s hard to top a statline like that when you’re that untouchable.

Still, there are plenty of other names who earned some recognition for the weeks they put together. We’ll use this space each week to acknowledge some of the state’s best performers who garnered consideration for the title. Here’s a look at some of the most notable.

WEEKLY DIAMOND NOTES

+ Weston Brockhouse, RHP, Mount Vernon, 2019
Mount Vernon opened their conference play with an enormous win against Belleville Althoff, courtesy of senior right-hander Weston Brockhouse. He no-hit Althoff and walked just two batters, striking out eight along the way. This spring, Brockhouse is 2-0 with 21 punch-outs in 17 innings, against just three walks.

Noah DeLuga, LHP/OF, Lake Zurich, 2020
Lake Zurich’s ace Noah DeLuga was electric in his one start last week against a talented Summit program from Tennessee. In his five innings of work, the Minnesota commit did not allow a run and gave up just two hits, two walks, and struck out 12 batters. He was also 7-for-14 from the plate last week with a pair of doubles, four RBIs, and he was 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts.

Nick Guerra, INF/RHP, Morton, 2019
INF/RHP Nick Guerra, a Maryville commit, led Morton to a 3-0 week and made a strong case for this week’s Player of the Week. In a Monday 2-1 win over Peoria Notre Dame, Guerra went 1-for-1 with a double, run scored and two walks at the plate. He also got the win on the mound, going 4.2 innings pitches, scattered three hits, one earned run, struck out six and did not walk a batter. In the other two wins on the week, Guerra went 3-for-4 with two home runs, four RBI, four runs scored and two walks. His two home runs came in back-to-back at-bats in a win over Sterling. On the week Guerra went 4-for-5 with two home runs, a double, five runs scored, four RBI’s and four walks. He posted a staggering on base percentage of .889 and his OPS was 3.089.

Through the first six games of the season, Guerra is hitting .750 with a 2B and 2 Home Runs. He has reached base safely in 19 of 22 plate appearances with 10 runs scored and eight RBI from the leadoff spot. He's hitting .800 with runners In scoring position and he's scored the game winning run in 3 of the Potters' 5 wins.

+ Jack Heimer, INF/RHP, Freeport, 2019
Senior Jack Heimer made two appearances on the mound last week was an integral part to the Pretzels earning three wins during that span. In eight innings, he struck out 11 batters and allowed just three earned runs. He also added six hits, three doubles, and drove in four runs from the batter’s box.

+ Ethan Hill, INF, Freeport, 2019
The Pretzels got a big boost from senior middle infielder Ethan Hill last week, who went 8-for-13 at the plate with two doubles, a homer, and drove in nine runs. More importantly, Hill didn’t strike out in last week’s 27 plate appearances. He set the tempo for Freeport’s 3-0 week in which he slugged 1.083, too.

+ Jack Moses, UTL, Lake Zurich, 2020
The Bears went 3-1 last week with the help of junior Jack Moses’ work in the right-handed batter’s box. The utilityman was on base seemingly all week and hit .545 with a double and six runs scored. He reached base in his first 13 plate appearances of the spring.

Masen Riser, LHP/OF, Lake Park, 2019
Uncommitted senior two-way talent Masen Riser starred in Lake Park’s four-game trip to Arizona last week. The Lancers went undefeated with the help of Riser, who was a combined 6-for-12 at the plate with three extra-base hits, including a home run, which helped him drive in seven runs and scored five times himself. He also started one game against a Colorado high school in which he struck out nine batters in six innings and allowed just two hits, one walk, and did not let Mead High score.

Collin Wilma, RHP/3B, Tinley Park, 2019
Collin Wilma, a Southeast Missouri State commit, put together a great week from the Gulf Shores Classic Tournament in Alabama to help Tinley Park earn a top-four finish in the 62-team event. In the team’s 6-3 win over Alabama’s Haleyville, Wilma struck out a whopping 20 batters in seven innings and allowed just two runs on five hits, out-dueling one of the best pitchers in Alabama in the process. He also added three hits, five walks, five runs, and five RBIs from the batter’s box.

+ Mark Winter, INF, McHenry, 2019
The Warriors are 5-1 this spring so far, and were listed on the most recent On The Bubble section of the PBR Illinois Power 25. Last week, Mark Winter helped make McHenry’s trip to Tennessee a fun one. He was 8-for-12 with a double, home run, and he drove in nine runs. That home run turned out to be a clutch one, helping propel the team to an 8-6 victory over Clarksville (TN).

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