30 May 2003

Brook Earns Top Titan Baseball Honors

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Senior Steve Brook was selected as both the "Most Valuable Player" and the "Most Valuable Pitcher" honor for the 2003 Illinois Wesleyan baseball team.

Brook, IWU’s only College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin first team selection, was a third team all-Central region choice as he had a 5-3 record with a 1.74 earned run average. He pitched five complete games, struck out 55 and walked only six in 67 1/3 innings.

Brook finished his career at IWU tied for fourth with 18 pitching victories, fourth in innings pitched (224), and third in games (50) and strikeouts (189).

In other team honors for the Titans, who were 24-15 overall and 11-10 in the CCIW, junior infielder Chuck Nelson (Elk Grove Village, Conant HS) and sophomore pitcher/catcher Jason Shearn (Wheeling, Buffalo Grove HS) were chosen as the “Most Improved Players” and freshman outfielder Cory Lapinski (Niles, Maine East HS) earned the “Top Newcomer” award.

Nelson batted .305 with four doubles, one home run and 18 runs batted in. He also scored 19 runs.
Shearn had a 2-1 record with a 0.75 ERA and struck out 16 in 12 innings. He started 16 games at catcher, batting .292 with a double and nine RBI.
Playing in all 39 games, Lapinski was second on the team with a .344 batting average and led IWU with five homers. He had nine doubles, 22 runs batted in and a team-best .547 slugging percentage.

Three Titan seniors ­ Ryan Gilfillan, Jeremy Hunt and Erik Zier - etched their names throughout the school’s record books. Gilfillan a second baseman from Peoria (Notre Dame HS), became IWU’s career leader in hits (217), doubles (64), at bats (613), and games played (179). He is second in runs batted in (143), fourth in runs scored (147) and his .354 career batting average is 11th best among Titans who played two seasons or more. He also holds the IWU season records for hits (71), doubles (20), and walks (31), all set in 2001.

Hunt, a centerfielder from Champaign (Centennial HS), slumped to a .219 average this spring but ended his career as IWU’s all-time leader in stolen bases with 54. He is also fifth in runs (136) and hits (182), eighth in RBI (114), third in doubles (40) and second in games played (175) and career at bats (591).

Zier (Lockport HS), a left-handed pitcher, finished eighth all-time at IWU with 17 pitching wins and was also eighth with 147 career strikeouts. He appeared in 40 games and pitched 180 innings, 10th most at IWU. He also had the first no-hitter at IWU since 1982 when he blanked Wheaton, 8-0, on March 30, 2002.

Head coach Dennis Martel, whose 16-year record is 385-254-3 (.602), awarded letters to 25 players. They are, with hometowns and high schools:

SENIORS - Steve Brook (Chicago Heights, Homewood-Flossmoor HS); Ryan Gilfillan (Peoria, Notre Dame HS); Jeremy Hunt (Champaign, Centennial HS); Chris Kaufman (Normal, West HS); Mike Mazzone (Carol Stream, Glenbard North HS); Scott Schiller (McHenry, Johnsburg HS); Eric Zier (Lockport HS).

JUNIORS - Rich Berthold (Elk Grove, Conant HS); Rob Blumberg (Freeburg HS); Nick Heinz (McHenry HS); Chuck Nelson (Elk Grove Village, Conant HS); Jason Trotter (Macon, Meridian HS).

SOPHOMORES - Mick Curran (Orland Park, Sandburg HS); Mitch Nowicki (Naperville, Central HS); Pat Poston (Santa Rose, Calif., Maria Carilla HS); Jason Shearn (Wheeling, Buffalo Grove HS).

FRESHMEN ­ Pat Cinquegrani (Barrington, Fremd HS); Dave Dobosz (Lombard, Glenbard West HS); Brandon DuBois (Beecher HS); Drew Himes (Princeton HS); Joe Howard (Downers Grove, Montini HS); Russ Koper (Bartlett HS); Cory Lapinski (Niles, Maine East HS); Brian McCabe (Cary, Cary-Grove HS); Tod Moore (St. Charles, East HS).