19 of Coach Hogan’s boys are running the bases at the next level.
FENWICK FACT: 19 Friars’ alumni student-athletes are playing baseball collegiately this spring. Ian Crowell ’16 (not pictured) is a pitcher from Elmhurst who plays for the Boston University Terriers’ Club Team. Three others also are not pictured:
Oak Parker Zack Pacer ’17, an outfielder for the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Scarlet Hawks.
Owen Wauun ’18, a catcher from Western Springs who plays for the DePauw University Tigers out of Greencastle, Indiana.
KJ Slepicka ’18 (River Forest), is a pitcher/outfielder for the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s Fightin’ Engineers in Terre Haute, Indiana.Here are the other former Friars players still playing:
Class of 2015
Quinn Snarskis (Chicago), Pitcher – University of Illinois
Kevin Forde (Western Springs), Pitcher – St. Joe’s/ Valparaiso (injured)
Justin Rodriguez (Wood Dale), Catcher – Concordia University of Chicago (River Forest)
Class of 2016
Sean Herbert (Riverside), Pitcher – Viterbo University (La Crosse, Wisconsin)
Class of 2017
Anthony Cavalieri (Western Springs), Middle Infield – Lewis University (Joliet, Illinois)Mike Fiorito (Franklin Park), Infield – Cornell College (Iowa)
Ethan Gerstner (Riverside), Catcher – University of Wisconsin at La Crosse
Casey O’Laughlin (Glen Ellyn), Outfield – Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois)
Justin Sosa (Chicago), Pitcher – Benedictine University (Lisle, Illinois)
Head Coach Dave Hogan can shed some clothing layers in Orlando.
Last week a group of Fenwick “snowbird” alumni gathered in the Arizona desert on March 15 to watch the Chicago Cubs defeat the White Sox under partly sunny skies and 71-degree temperatures. The school’s baseball and softball teams have caught the warmer-weather bug, too, as the annual spring athlete migration is set to begin.
The evening before the crosstown-classic rivalry at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, AZ, a handful of faithful fans braved howling winds and biting, 43-degree temps to watch the Friar boys’ baseball team demolish Ridgewood’s Rebels from Norridge/Harwood Heights by a score of 15-2. It was 2019 opening night under the lights at Triton College.
The highlight was senior Lucas Kolovitz (above, in Florida last year), a D1 recruit committed to Purdue University – Fort Wayne, blasting a towering homerun that, with Mother Nature’s assistance, traveled nearly 400 feet into the angry, River Grove sky. (Junior Will Hendricks also smashed a triple, while fellow junior Greyson Cone’s cannon-like arm was on display at third base.) The windy win marked number 817 for Varsity Baseball Coach Dave Hogan, who is entering his 39th season as the Friars’ skipper. Coach Hogan has tallied the second most baseball victories at one school in Illinois, dating back to 1980.
Cousins face off: Tommy Groom and the Hornets of Bishop Moore (Orlando) will try to sting the Friars — and his older cousin, Jimmy — on March 25.
“We have eight games scheduled in Florida, three of them in the Atlanta Braves’ spring training big-league stadium,” reports Assistant Varsity Coach and baseball alumnus Kyle Kmiecik ’00. On Monday, March 25, the top end of a double-header features the cousins Groom on the mound: Fenwick senior pitcher Jimmy Groom will try to match heat with his younger, flame-throwing cousin Tommy: a right-handed junior who hurls 90-mph fastballs for Bishop Moore out of Orlando. (Tommy’s father, Chris, taught Spanish at Fenwick in 1994-96, Principal Groom says of his brother. “He also coached sophomore baseball,” reports Mr. Groom.)
The projected high temperature for game day is a balmy 82 degrees at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The nightcap pits the Friars against the Lions of Orange High School from Pepper Pike, Ohio, near Cleveland.
The following evening Fenwick faces the Quakers of Sidwell Friends, a selective, private school in the Washington, D.C.- Bethesda, Maryland area. Next up on Wednesday is another Quaker team from Philadelphia: the William Penn Charter School; on Thursday it’s the “Fords” from the all-boys Haveford School, also in Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia).
Our Chicago-area boys close out their trip in the sun with a mid-day double-header on Friday, March 29: Game 1 (10:30 a.m.) brings competition from the Patriots of Germantown Academy (Washington, PA), originally called the Union School and dating back to 1759. Game 2 (first pitch at 1 p.m.) is against the Bears of Landon School, a 90-year-old, college-prep school situated in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.
