By Dick Goss dgoss@stmedianetwork.com August 7, 2013 8:14PM
The Joliet Dirtbags | Supplied photo
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Updated: August 8, 2013 2:39AM
Kevin Campbell coaches baseball on the sophomore level at his alma mater, Joliet Catholic.
He also helped with Jared Voss? varsity team during its run to the Class 3A state championship in the spring.
He conducted tryouts this week for the always-successful St. Raymond Grade School program. He is taking over as head coach from Tom McGrath, who has retired. He was a McGrath assistant for several years.
And, he departed Wednesday for Battle Creek, Mich., where he will manage the Joliet Dirtbags as they compete Thursday through Sunday in the 100th anniversary of the NABF Major Division World Series. The Dirtbags, a wood bat team whose roster consists largely of college players but also has a few who are out of school, earned passage to the World Series when they beat perennial power Beecher Muskies 9-0 in Sunday?s Kankakee Regional title game.
Campbell?s resume indeed is impressive, especially for a 23-year-old.
?Dads and other coaches are taking over the St. Ray?s practices while I?m in Michigan,? Campbell said. ?So that will be fine.
?The hardest thing about coaching different ages is going from the college kids to junior high kids, with the difference in level of play. Going from high school to college kids in the early summer is much easier. The only differences there are JCA kids have more energy and the college guys have a little more knowledge of the game.?
The Dirtbags went 5-1 in the double-elimination regional. That included a split Sunday against Beecher, which won the first game of the finals 6-0 to force a winner-take-all finale.
?That was the first time in eight or nine years that Beecher lost a game in the regional, much less did not win it,? Campbell said.
Veteran Atlanta Braves area scout Stu Cann, of Peotone, was there. Campbell said he had an eye on a few of the Dirtbags.
Joliet opened with an 8-0 victory over the Peotone Pirates as Nick Davito (Lockport, St. Francis) and Chris Blatti (Joliet Catholic, St. Francis) combined on the shutout. Rick Faron (St. Francis) went six innings and Austin Mastela (Lockport, Lewis) belted a three-run homer in the sixth inning of a 3-2 win over Michigan City.
Tom Helwich (Lincoln-Way Central, Lewis) then no-hit Beecher 4-1, allowing only an unearned run in the first inning. Kyle Davidson followed with a nine-inning complete game in a 3-2 victory over the Homestead Ranchers. Cody Columbus (Joliet Catholic, St. Francis) knocked in the decisive run.
That sent the Dirtbags to the finals. Kyle Cunningham (Joliet Catholic, St. Francis) pitched eight strong innings but took the loss against Beecher. Blatti, normally the closer, picked him up, shutting out the Muskies in the title game in his first start of the season. Davidson, the shortstop, went 4-for-4.
?Blatti really stepped up,? Campbell said. ?Both teams were running on empty and the game was scoreless. In the bottom of the fourth, we were turning a double play and their runner struck our second baseman, Brad Porter (Plainfield North, St. Francis), with his shoulder. That seemed to flip the switch. We scored runs in the fifth and sixth, two in the seventh and five in the ninth.?
Porter was playing second base because Brian Dixon was unable to be there.
?Brad Porter could not have done a better job replacing him,? Campbell said.
Davidson was his usual highlight reel at shortstop, Cunningham was solid at third and when either pitched, Jack Troike did an excellent job filling the defensive position. First baseman Joe Sparacio (Plainfield Central, Lewis) rounds out the infield, with Casey Papp (Providence, Joliet Junior College) and Tommy Charles (Lincoln-Way Central) sharing catching duties.
The outfield defense, which creates what the Dirtbags call the ?no-fly zone,? was unchanged and superb throughout the regional with Columbus in left, hot-hitting David Kuhne (St. Francis) in center and Mastela in right. ?Nothing drops out there,? Campbell said.
In his second season guiding the Dirtbags, Campbell said the goal in building a roster was ?to take all the talent we could from this area plus a select few from outside the area. Columbus and Cunningham are captains. They keep the guys in check. Tom Helwich is a real leader and Casey Papp is a vocal leader. It makes me feel good that at least a couple of our guys canceled plans they had made in order to be with us in Michigan.?
The World Series will feature three four-team pools. The top two finishers in each pool, plus two wild cards (third-place teams) will advance to the single-elimination quarterfinals. The eventual winner must win three games in the championship bracket.
The other Illinois entry besides the Dirtbags is the Chicago Clout, the defending champion.
?The Clout has a lot of St. Francis kids and so do we, so it will be interesting if we play them,? Campbell said.
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