Collins, Rush star on 'biggest stage'

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From the pregame history lesson to the big league setting, this was anything but another game for Nick Collins and everyone else in Friday's Double Duty Classic.

"This is the biggest stage I ever played on," said Collins, who will be a junior at Rich Central this fall. "You get jitters at the beginning of the game. Once the game gets going, you get used to it."

Collins and his teammates on the East All-Stars broke open a pitchers' duel in the sixth and seventh innings, scoring 12 times en route to a 12-2 win in the high school all-star game at U.S. Cellular Field.

Game MVP Dontrell Rush, who will be a senior at Harlan, went 2-for-4 with four RBI for the East and Collins finished 2-for-5 with two runs, a double and an RBI.

Both of them took part in a forum before the game, moderated by writer and broadcaster Michael Wilbon, a Chicago native. Negro League veterans Walt Owens, Hank Presswood and Ernest Westfield shared stories of their playing days, including one by Presswood about legendary pitcher Satchel Paige that compared the sound of the Hall of Famer's fastball to fireworks.

"It really inspired me," Collins said of the forum, which also featured White Sox general manager Ken Williams. "I looked at the game way different because I know how important it is, how much history is behind it, why we are here and who made it possible for us."

"It was a good experience for me and the rest of the guys," Rush said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I believe that everyone had fun and took advantage of it."

Rush certainly did, delivering two-run singles in both the East's eight-run sixth -- which included three West errors -- and four-run seventh.

Collins started the sixth-inning rally with a double and drove in the seventh run of the inning with a single. Jerry Houston, who will be a freshman at Mount Carmel, walked and scored, and slugged an RBI double in the sixth.

"Before the game I was very nervous," Collins said. "Once I got my first hit, I was strong, I was loose, I was just ready for the game."

Rush's second two-run hit capped the East's four-run seventh.

"When we were downstairs, we were talking about trying to focus on the game," Rush said. "We [knew we] were going to make a couple of mistakes, but we pulled it together."

Hector Chapa, an incoming senior at Payton, worked a scoreless fifth to earn the win. The East also had two shutout innings each from Prosser's Herberto Ortega and Ronzell Fort, a 6-foot-7 lefty from Harlan.

For the West, Whitney Young's Ynabon Cabrera-Loos was 2-for-4. T.F. North's Alvaro Calderon pitched two scoreless innings for the West and struck out a game-high three batters.