Baseball team finishes third in conference
By Duane Price
IV Leader Staff, May 6, 2004
The IVCC Eagles baseball team’s record-breaking hitting has lead them to an impressive 34 win, 16 loss season to date.
The Eagles also finished 14-6 in conference play, which placed them third in the Arrowhead Conference.
The team had a chance to share the conference title going into a double-header May 3 at home against Black Hawk.
If IVCC would have won both contests, they would have shared the conference crown with Kishwaukee.
Instead, IVCC split the two games with Black Hawk, 5-3 and 5-13.
The split gave IVCC third in the conference and Black Hawk and Kishwaukee shared the conference title.
With a current .363 hitting average Head Coach Bob Koopmann says the team is on track to break the school-record for hitting in a season.
“I’ve never had a team hit like this before,” said Koopmann. He praised the team’s hitting coach, Joe Sester, for the boost in active bats, which Koopmann considers to be the team’s strength.
Travis White is leading the team in hitting with an average of .505 (51 for 101) and 27 RBIs. The Australian third baseman also currently ranks third among the NJCAA national list of top hitters among all Division II programs.
Pitcher Clay Zavada, a 2003 Streator High School graduate, has also been impressive for the Eagles. Zavada is presently 7-2 and hopes to lead the Eagles during the postseason. He ranks 11 on the national list of strikeouts per inning with 1.283, and is being highly recruited by over a half a dozen NCAA Division I and II schools.
Koopmann enjoys the position the Eagles are in and says, “We’re hoping to be one of the top four teams seeded in the regional, which would allow us to play on our home field. Our goal is win our fourth straight regional and ultimately our goal is to get to the World Series,” said Koopmann of his aspirations for the Eagles this postseason.
With the conclusion of the regular season the Eagles will begin their postseason bid for success May 8 and 9 at the sectional playoffs.
In fact, Koopmann’s Eagles did earn a four seed and will play at home for three games on Saturday, May 8.
IVCC plays McHenry at 10 a.m., Black Hawk at 1 p.m. and McHenry again at 4 p.m.
The championship game will be at noon Sunday, May 9 on the IVCC diamond.
According to Koopmann the future outlook for the Eagles baseball team appears promising: “We always seem to play well at the end of the year and carry it on into the postseason.”