Coal City Courant

Coalers make a good run at state, vow to return

Published by admin on Tue, 06/05/2018 - 3:00pm

    Even though things  started out good, the Coal City baseball team could not stop a five-run fourth inning  by St. Ignatius in the Super Sectional game in Crestwood, losing 6-5.
    Monday’s loss was a heart-breaking end to a record-tying season for the Coalers.
    “I told the kids not to let this game define what you guys have done all year,” commented Coal City coach Greg Wills.  “I mean obviously we came up a bit short but we accomplished some great things and have put Coaler baseball back on the map.”

Coaler season ends

Published by admin on Mon, 06/04/2018 - 8:34pm

The Coal City baseball team threatened with two base runners their last turn at-bat but couldn't bring them home, losing the Super Sectional 6-5 to St. Ignatius and their chance to play in the Class 3A state finals.

The Coalers were ahead 5-1 after three innings, but the Wolfpack scored five runs in the fourth to take the lead and spoil things for the guys in Green.

Coalers play Monday for a shot at state

Published by admin on Sun, 06/03/2018 - 2:20pm

The Coal City boys baseball team is one victory away from playing in the Class 3A state finals with Saturday's sectional victory over Joliet Catholic.

The Coalers (34-5) will battle St. Ignatius Chicago (15-9) at 5 p.m. Monday at Standard Bank Stadium in the Crestwood Super Sectional for a shot at playing at Route 66 Stadium in Joliet starting Friday.

Walk-off advances Coalers to sectional

Published by admin on Tue, 05/29/2018 - 5:42pm

    Hopefully the green machine just gains speed from here, passing the first level towards a state championship.
    The Coal City baseball team captured the regional championship Saturday, defeating Manteno 2-1 thanks to a clutch hit by Beau Wills to win the game.
    Coaler Coach Greg Wills said before the game he was confident with his starting pitcher.

Coalers ready for playoffs on a 30-5 record

Published by admin on Tue, 05/22/2018 - 4:31pm

    Coal City traveled to Yorkville to wrap up the regular season with a big 3-1 victory, thanks to an excellent pitching performance  by Payton Hutchings.
    The Coalers (30-5) got the bulk of their runs early. Brendan Nevin began the second inning drawing a walk. Austin Friddle put Nevin on third slashing a liner into left field.
    An RBI groundout off the bat of Carter Copes plated Nevin from third.    Following that, Friddle scored on a dropped third strike wild pitch.
    Then, after two shutdown innings, Yorkville got a run to narrow the gap to 2-1.

Coalers ready for regional by boiling the Boilermakers

Published by admin on Tue, 05/15/2018 - 4:49pm

    The varsity Coalers hosted Bradley-Bourbonnais and got a 5-2 win, thanks to a quality start on the mound from Justin Dabulskis.
    The Coalers (28-5, 14-2) scored three in the first inning to energize the crowd.Beau Wills began the rally walloping a double into the gap. Blake Harseim followed that drawing the four wide ones to put runners on first and second with one out.
    Austin Friddle ripped a triple over the center fielder’s head scoring both Wills and Harseim in the process.

Lady Coalers steam over the Reapers

Published by admin on Tue, 05/08/2018 - 7:30pm

    The Coal City softball team was firing on all cylinders Monday sending the Plano Reapers home packing in a 7-1 victory.
    After three scoreless innings, the Lady Coalers (10-14, 8-6) got it going with a five-run fourth inning that started with a one out walk to Madelaine Ragain (.340).
    Then Ragain got out on a strange pop out error off the bat of Madison Emerson (.365) who would replace her on base with two outs.

Coalers win eight straight to lead conference

Published by admin on Tue, 05/01/2018 - 5:34pm

On Friday night, the Coalers hosted Reed-Custer at Silver Cross Field in Joliet  on the brand new turf and shut them out, thanks to great pitching with a big 6-0 win.                     After three scoreless innings for both sides, the Coalers (19-4 and first in conference 9-1) got into the run column scoring one in the fourth inning to take the lead.                     Blake Harseim(.375 1HR 13RBI)  started off the one out  rally with a single into left field and would later score when Brendan Nevin reached on an error.         

Coalers control I-8, taking all three conference games

Published by admin on Tue, 04/24/2018 - 7:03pm

The Coal City varsity baseball team pounded visiting Seneca 7-1 Monday, to improve to 14-4 overall and position themselves near the top of the I-8 conference.
Coaler Carter Copes hit an RBI groundout scoring Beau Wills to tally the first run of the game in the second inning.
A Keegan Gagliardo RBI single drove in Payton Hutchings for another run in the following inning to give Coal City a two-run lead.

Long joins FPN news staff

Published by admin on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 5:20pm

Shawn Long, of Wilmington, has joined the Free Press Newspapers to help cover high school sports.
    He is a graduate of Illinois State University where he majored in broadcast journalism and was a television sports reporter on the campus news station, TV-10 News.
    Long graduated from Wilmington High School in 2011, and went on to attend Joliet Junior College, where he originally wanted to be an architect. He took a couple of journalism classes and it was a fit.