Schwartz solid for HP in summer action

As Jordan Schwartz eyes his future, the Highland Park High School shortstop is doing everything in his power to amp up his game.

The senior-to-be hit .362 this summer with 19 runs scored for the Giants (10-6 in league play). The speedy leadoff man stole 16 bases.

“Jordan worked extremely hard on and off the field,” said Giants coach Eddie Pieczynski, whose team lost in the second round of the IHSBCA Palatine Regional last week. “He wants to play in college.”

Schwartz provided a steady glove in the field.

“He made all the routine players this summer,” the coach said.

The Giants opted to use wood bats all summer. Other top hitters for Highland Park included Alec Van Cleve (.382, 16 RBI), Christian Biondi (.300, 19 RBI) and Adam Kaplan (.300, 13 RBI). Pieczynski also enjoyed the work of Alec Greenberg and Harry Carl.

Biondi earned the victory in the state playoff opener. He did allow a grand slam late in the game, but HP hung on to beat Evanston 8-6.

For the summer, Biondi had a 1.90 ERA. In 41 innings of work, he struck out 32 while walking only four.

“Christian threw a lot of first-pitch strikes (vs. Evanston),” Pieczynski noted.

The other top pitchers in the summer included Jeremy Mandel (0.86 ERA, 10 strikeouts in 21 innings), Brett Shimanovsky (3.91 ERA, 21 Ks in 23 innings), Max Mordini (3.50 ERA, 26 Ks in 28 innings), Justin Stern and Jake Rubin.

The Giants’ season ended with a 12-2 loss to Niles West in a quarterfinal battle.

At Deerfield

For Loyola Academy, it must have felt like “Groundhog Day.”

Late in the regular season, right-hander Jack Silberman beat the Ramblers 10-0. Silberman took the mound again in the IHSBCA Palatine Regional opener on July 18 — and shut down Loyola 12-2.

“All season, Jack kept the ball down and threw strikes,” said Warriors coach Kevin Marsh, whose club fell to Maine South 8-1 in the quarterfinal round on July 19. “Jack has a nice little breaking ball and nice changeup.”

Silberman was effective all summer while posting a 4-1 record.

“He made it difficult for hitters to do any damage against him,” Marsh said.

The Warriors were unable to keep the magic going against Maine South, however.

“We hit the ball well, but we didn’t hit the ball away from their fielders.” Marsh said. “And the thing we didn’t do well was catch the ball.”

Deerfield enjoyed plenty of success during a 12-6 campaign. The club hit .370 as a team, with contributions from Ryan Adkins, Eli Berlin Zack Berman, Ben Browdy, Landon Cohen, Xander Horwitz, Alex Karkazis, Jared Rubin, Eric Schwartz and Dillon Wallace.

“(The high average) was much different than our spring,” Marsh noted.

On the mound, the other top pitcher was Max Mazzetta.

“We’ve penciled him in as one of our top guys,” the coach said. “Max threw a lot with his club team. He can be pretty effective.”

Marsh had no complaints with how the summer unfolded.

“The surprise was our offense and our pitching,” he said. “Our ERA was pretty low, and all the kids threw a lot of strikes.”

Deerfield fielded two varsity teams this summer. A squad led by coach Steve Brown won 11 of 16 games. Top players included Paul Delucia and Nate Lotterbach.

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