By Sean Duncan

News and Notes from around the state …

Bloomington High senior Dylan Johnson won’t soon forget his performance last Saturday. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound left-handed hitting third baseman connected for four home runs in the day. Two came in a 17-3 loss to Class 2A defending champ Olympia and two in a 12-2 win over Freeport. All four were opposite-field blasts, and three came in successive at-bats.

Johnson, a Heartland CC recruit, finished with nine RBI on the day. Johnson is batting .545 with five homers and 13 RBI as of last week. Johnson, a three-year standout at Bloomington, batted .373 with 13 doubles, five triples and 31 RBI as a junior last season.

Rarest of feats: Woodlawn junior Dawson Verhines entered the seventh inning against Bluford on Thursday with one RBI to his credit. After the conclusion of the inning, he had nine.

Verhines connected for two grand slams in the seventh inning as he helped turn a tight 11-10 advantage into a 23-10 victory at Bluford. Only three times in Illinois high school history had a player hit two slams in the same inning. As you may remember, Fernando Tatis of the Cardinals accomplished the feat in 1999, the only major-leaguer to do so.

Verhines had one home run in his varsity career prior to the game. Woodlawn is located in southern Illinois.

Cheddar, Gas, Heat, Petro, Big Can of Queso …: On Thursday at Joliet Catholic, I witnessed a first for me in the six years of the Prep Baseball Report. Michael Foltynewicz, a 6-foot-5 right-hander from Minooka HS, hit 96 mph on the gun in the first inning. And not just once – several times. In fact, in the first inning, Foltynewicz sat at 94-96 mph.

The 96 marks the highest I’ve personally ever recorded from of an Illinois prep player. (Note: the PBR’s Stalker radar gun once clocked Indiana senior phenom Justin O’Conner from Cowan HS 96 from shortstop at the Super 60 last year). I’ve seen former Waubonsie Valley star Michael Bowden at 94 during his spectacular senior season in ’05, and heard reports that Highland’s Jake Odorizzi was up to 95 at times (personally witnessed 93), but I’ve never seen nor heard of any Illinois high school player reaching 96 since 2005. Incidentally, Odorizzi was a first-round pick by the Brewers in ’08 and Bowden was a sandwich-round pick by the Red Sox.

Commitment: Daniel Hodorowski, an outfielder at Waubonsie Valley HS, has committed to Beloit College. For a complete list of commitments, Click Here.

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