Diamond notes

First-year coach Pete Kasperski has the Lady Devils “squashing the bug” at Hall. (BCR photo/Kevin Hieronymus)

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Longtime Hall staffer Pete Kasperski has brought in a lot of enthusiasm and some good humor to the Hall softball team in his first year with the program. He wants the girls to come wanting to play and feels that attitude will show on the field.

He routinely tells his girls to “squash the bug” when they come to bat. It’s an old saying he picked up from his baseball coach at Eastern Illinois University, JW Sanders.

“It was something we could understand, turn that back foot and try to get the hips into the swing,” he said. “I just want to remind the girls.”

And when his daughter, Katie, was hit by a pitch in a recent game by St. Bede pitcher Clarissa Gidcumb, Kasperski informed her, “There’s no crying in softball.”

Kasperski, who formerly was head baseball coach at Hall from 1996-2000, started the season telling his girls he just wanted to improve each game. Upon losing to St. Bede on April  16, he wanted to instill a winning attitude and apparently the girls have listened, when their last six games to improve to 8-7.

“I want to win every game, I don’t care who we play,” he said. “We haven’t played a team yet ... and nothing against them ... that is head and shoulders above us.”

Coach K plans to be in it for the long haul, even though some may have thought he was only on the one-year plan, with his daughter being a senior. He has too many parents and supporters behind the scenes helping him improve the program, from building dugouts to a batting cage, to hang it up after just one year, he said.

“We’ve got guys making stuff to try to make them feel like somebody cares for them,” said Kasperski, who is enjoying himself and plans to stick it out until he retires in seven or 10 years.

The summer league girls raised money to build dugouts at the Hall softball diamond. Kasperski is real pleased how they have turned out, thanks to the help from parents and supporters like Tom and Regina Hinkey, Greg Maggio, Duane Pozzi, Jeff Janusick, Trent Thomas, Chaise Thomas, Jim Smoode and Mike Hanson.

• The last laugh: St. Bede’s Gidcumb got the last laugh on Kasperski in the forementioned game. When she came to bat for the second time in the fourth inning, Kasperski raised his voice just enough to let her hear, “No batter.” She smiled at her old driver’s ed instructor and then drove a pitch to center field for a base hit.

• Animal planet:  Blame it on Global Warming, if you must, but something caused the clash of the baseball/softball world to the animal planet last Thursday. The Princeton-Mendota baseball game was broken up a couple times by the romps of Jake the black lab, who ran around the field and marked his territory at Prather Field.

On the same day in LaMoille, the Ohio-LaMoille softball fans saw three horses being chased by a 4-wheeler outside the playing field and 15 minutes later, a little dog racing across the outfield between the Ohio girls.

• Home away from home: The Bureau Valley baseball team got to play in the big stadium, Alliant Energy Field, the home of the Clinton Lumberjacks over the weekend in Clinton, Iowa. Besides the fact the Storm are 4-0 over the last two seasons, including 10-5 and 7-6 wins over Fulton and Amboy, Storm coach Jason Stabler said his team really loves playing there.

“The kids grew up dreaming of playing in a place like that, and to see it written there that guys like Jason Bay, Garry Mathews Jr, Bobby Howry and Grady Sizemore played there, it’s a neat to play in the same park they did,” BV coach Jason Stabler said.

• Three’s company: The White Sox Mark Buehrle doesn’t hold the market on no-hitters, LaSalle-Peru High School does. L-P baseballer Brett Zawacki, an Arizona State recruit bound to be drafted, no-hit Sterling 5-0 last week, while softball counterpart Torie Bunzell no-hit Rochelle 5-0 the next day.

Good things come in threes for L-P as Hannah Huebbe no-hit Putnam County 6-0 on Monday.

• Quick hits: The BCR has begun running its weekly leaderboard of area softball and baseball leaders. All coaches should submit their team stats by no later than Wednesday morning each week by fax to (815) 875-1235.

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