John Hough, Sports Writer

EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville Tigers defeated the Normal Community West Wildcats 12-8 and the Class 4A Bloomington Sectional Championship at Horenberger Field on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. Drake Westcott was 2-for-3 with two home runs and six RBI, including a grand slam in the...

SAN FRANCISCO - A day after being officially called up to the San Francisco Giants, Sam Coonrod found himself at the center of attention on the mound at Oracle Park. His lifelong journey of playing in the big leagues had finally come to fruition. He had been in the minor leagues for five years...

SPRINGFIELD - Virtually all season long the Piasa Southwestern Birds did enough to take advantage of their opportunities; however, against the Olympia Spartans, it was a different story. Thirteen runners got on base for the Birds, but Kaelyn Leverson and the Spartans stepped up time and time...

GREENVILLE - Baseball is a beautiful game, but it can also be cruel. The Carrollton Hawks were three outs away from defeating the vaunted Gibault Catholic Hawks behind the gritty effort by freshman pitcher, Grant Pohlman who had kept Gibault scoreless for two and one-third innings. However,...

GREENVILLE - Down to their last three outs, the Carrollton Hawks were staring elimination in the eyes to the Valmeyer Pirates for the third consecutive season. A year ago at this time, Hunter Flowers was out of baseball nursing a shoulder injury, but this year he was up to bat with his team...

CARROLLTON - It's the best of both worlds for Nathan Walker. He's accomplished two longtime goals; officially signed to play college baseball and major in engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. "I've wanted to be an engineer for as long as I can remember and Rose-Hulman is one of th...

CARROLLTON - Five months after officially committing to play at the college level, Carrollton Hawks pitching ace, Gabe Jones signed his letter-of-intent to Quincy University to continue his baseball career. "It's pretty cool. It's always been a dream of my dad and I for me to play college baseball,...

CARROLLTON - Star Carrollton athlete, Hannah Krumwiede signed her letter-of-intent to Illinois College in Jacksonville to play basketball and softball. "It feels awesome. I'm really excited to go next year and get some new coaches and teammates and start all over again and have some more fun," Krumwied...

CARROLLTON - Greg Pohlman didn’t see it coming. The longtime varsity baseball coach for the Carrollton Hawks was inducted into the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association (IHSBCA) this past winter. “I was tickled to death. You don’t expect things like that and when i...

CARROLLTON - Sam Cogan had to keep to his composure. The Marquette Catholic senior pitcher had just surrendered back-to-back doubles to put two men on base with no outs while protecting a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning against the Carrollton Hawks. On the ensuing at-bat, he thought...