PHS' Cruz makes homecoming to the Valley
John Cruz has been a longtime big booster of the Hall Red Devils. He put four kids and two baseball players through the Spring Valley school. One of his sons, Billy, is a former Hall board member and is newly engaged to Claire Vicini, daughter of Hall athletic director and coach Gary Vicini.
This spring, Cruz is bleeding blue, however, Princeton blue ... as the new head coach of the Tiger baseball program.
Cruz is taking a business approach to his homecoming game.
“I’ve been looking forward, but not looking past to it,” said Cruz, a 1969 graduate of DePue High School. “(The team) talked about it the other day. The only thing we’re going in there for is one thing and that’s to win a game.”
Cruz imagines he will find a lot of familiar faces around the ballpark and a few cat calls.
“I’m sure when I’m (coaching) at third base, I’ll hear a few things,” he said with a laugh.
As for his players and their closest friends surrounding the outfield perimeter at Foley Field, Cruz says they know they are not supposed to turn around and have any conversations.
Tuesday’s game will be the fourth straight for the Red Devils under the lights, having played Midland a double-dip Friday and Putnam County one game Saturday night. PHS and Hall also played a night game in the Valley last year.
• Seeding time: Coaches from area softball and baseball regionals got together last week to seed their upcoming postseason tournaments, only this time they did it via online. Rather than have coaches meet at the host school to discus their teams and seed the tournament field, the IHSA moved to an online format this school year, for all sports, to help coaches cut back on travel expenses.
PHS softball coach Bob James said he missed the personal contact with all the other coaches.
When it came down to seeding time, the teams expected to be No. 1s were seeded No. 1. Princeton landed the top seed at the Bureau Valley baseball regional with the host Storm and Hall going 2-3 followed by St. Bede and Kewanee.
“The way I voted is the way they came out, and everybody else saw it the same way,” PHS’ Cruz said.
The Tigers will face the winner of the May 18 game between Kewanee at St. Bede on May 20 in Manlius. The Storm and Red Devils meet May 21 fighting for a berth into the May 22 title game.
In 1A baseball, No. 5 LaMoille/Ohio will play at No. 4 Paw Paw on May 18.
Hall plays host to a 2A softball regional, drawing the No. 2 seed and a May 19 date vs. No. 3 Ottawa Marquette. Seneca is top-seeded, awaiting the outcome of the May 18 game between No. 5 St. Bede at No. 4.
Kewanee hosts the other 2A regional, headed by a pair of defending regional champions in No. 1 Sherrard and No. 2 Rockridge. James questioned how regionals are seeded as he knows of one regional which has four top-20 teams ranked in addition to the Kewanee Regional with the two top-10 teams.
The regional opens May 18 with No. 5 Bureau Valley playing at No. 4 Princeton and No. 6 Kewanee at No. 3 Aledo. The BV/PHS winner advances to face Sherrard on May 18 with the finals set for May 23.
No. 5 LaMoille/Ohio will face No. 4 South Beloit on May in the Serena 1A regional where Newark is top seeded.
• Short hops: IVC continues to lead the NCIC Lincoln baseball ranks, undefeated in eight league games after sweeping two games from Princeton (4-4) last week. ... Rock Falls (6-0) leads the NCIC Lincoln softball race. PHS gave IVC (4-2) a damaging blow by rebounding from a 22-0 loss on Friday to defeat the Lady Grey Ghosts 7-3 in the second game of a doubleheader. ... L-P dropped its first baseball game of the season after a 21-0 start.
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