Maine South Sports Roundup: Pair of Badminton Teams Advance to State Championships

Baseball: In mid-April Maine South coach Bill Milano was still looking for his team to play a complete game in all four aspects of the game: pitching, fielding, base running and batting. The Hawks were struggling at 5-5 and couldn’t seem to get on a roll.

Fast forward to the present and Maine South looks like a sectional title contender. The Hawks (10-7) have won five of their last seven games and look primed for another postseason run.

“At Deerfield we probably played one of our best games of the year,” Milano said of Maine South’s 3-0 victory in early May. “We scored a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth. We played really solid defense.”

Keenan Kelly struck out three and gave up only one hit – the first batter of the game -- in a complete game for Maine South.

Milano still is looking for his team to be consistent in every game they play. The Hawks lost two straight to Evanston. One game their hitting was non-existent and the second their defense was suspect. In the postseason – where close games are the norm – the difference between winning and losing will come down to execution of the routine plays.

“Five of those seven losses have been by two runs or fewer,” Milano said. “We could be 3-14 or we could be 13-3 because that’s how close these games have been.”

Luckily for Maine South, there are no dominant teams in the Glenview Sectional this year. As the No. 9 seed, the Hawks will face off against Evanston in the regional semi-finals.

“There’s probably 12 of those teams are very solid and they can beat any of those other teams on any given day. It’s going to come down to improving every day in practice and peaking in playoff time.”

Badminton: The doubles team of Allie Sakowicz and Jess Tornabene advanced to the state championships with a third-place finish at the Fremd Sectional. The duo beat Maine South’s other doubles team of Lizzy Kowalski and Tara Jakubow in the third-place match. Kowalski and Jakubow will also move on to the state championships this weekend.

Girls Track: Maine South took fifth place as a team, garnering 50 points, at the New Trier Invitational. The Hawks were paced by Kyle Sutschek who won the discus event with a throw of 107-2.

Anna Kinell, Thea Cudnowski, Emma Ropski and Megan Lemeral ran the 3200 relay in 10:04.66, finishing second to New Trier.

Boys Track: Maine South took second place at the Spartans Relays hosted by Glenbrook North, earning 74 points total. Nick Wisniewski, Brian Kowalski, Joe Cecala and Joey Yonkoff combined to win the pole vault event for Maine South while the Hawks’ 4x400 relay team also took first in 3:25.1.

SCOREBOARD WATCHING

Softball:

Maine South 4, St. Ignatius 3 on April 30 at the St. Charles East Invite

Boys Volleyball:

Maine South d. Glenbrook South 25-16, 25-15 on May 5

Maine South d. Joliet Catholic 25-17, 25-10 on May 6 in Lincoln Way East Invitational

Maine South d. Lake Park 17-25, 30-28, 15-13 on May 6 in Lincoln Way East Invitational