The small community of Woodlawn is located in rural southern Illinois, about an hour‘s drive from St. Louis. Its population is under 2,000, and its entire school system has less than 500 students, yet the schools are the town‘s single largest employer.
You’ll see a lot of farming tractors in Woodlawn. And now, you can add baseball to the town‘s history books.
On April 1, Dawson Verhines, a junior at Woodlawn High School who had only hit one home run in his high school baseball career, whacked two grand slams in one inning. No April Fool‘s joke here.
"It‘s pretty unreal," said his coach, Lance Boldt.
An 11-10 lead turned into a 23-10 Woodlawn (Woodlawn, Ill.) historic win over neighboring Bluford.
How unusual was Verhines’ feat? It has happened only once in Major League Baseball history, and Boldt, a St. Louis Cardinals fan, remembers it well. Fernando Tatis, who has played with five major-league clubs and is an infielder this year with the New York Mets, hit two grand slams in one inning for the Cardinals off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park on April 23, 1999.
"I remember when Tatis played for the Cardinals, but I don’t remember that (the double grand slams)," Verhines told the Register-News of Mount Vernon.
But in Illinois preps, it had happened three times, said Boldt, who checked with the Illinois High School Association. No matter. It’s certainly a first in Woodlawn (Woodlawn, Ill.).
"As soon as he hit it (the second grand slam), I knew it was gone," Boldt said. "He had a smile on his face."
The funny thing is, Dawson Verhines came to bat again with the bases loaded the very next day. He hit a line drive that was caught by an infielder. Verhines also plays basketball for Woodlawn, and was one of six Woodlawn athletes to play varsity football on a co-op team that included two other school districts.
"He’s a good kid. He does whatever you ask," Boldt said. "You couldn’t ask for a better human being."
Around Chicagoland: Deerfield’s Dukan to play in Hoop Summit
* University of Wisconsin recruit
Duje Dukan of Chicago north suburban Deerfield (Deerfield, Ill.) will play in the prestigious Nike Hoop Summit on Saturday night at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore., as a member of the World Select Team because he is a Croatia native. Dukan is one of four USA high school basketball players from other countries on the team, and the only one from Illinois. Dukan, a 6-foot-8 guard, averaged 24 points and 10 rebounds this season for Deerfield (Deerfield, Ill.), which finished 25-4 and won a Class 4A regional championship. "He was spectacular, brilliant all year," Deerfield coach Bret Just told the Pioneer newspaper. Also playing in the Hoop Summit, but for the USA junior national team, will be 7-foot center Meyers Leonard of Robinson (Robinson, Ill.), an Illinois recruit.
* Clemson University’s Oliver Purnell, who has no Chicago roots, was hired this week as the new men’s basketball coach at DePaul University, and critical chatter was in overdrive on Internet message boards as some city high school coaches were not happy with the Big East school picking an outsider. Although the current DePaul roster includes seven Chicagoland players, including
Marshall (Chicago) grad Mike Stovall, coaches want to see more Public League players recruited by DePaul. According to the Chicago Tribune, Purnell contacted some of those city coaches Wednesday. "We’re not saying that Public League players are the only players out there, but we want players in the Public League to have the opportunity to play at Depaul," Whitney Young coach Tyrone Slaughter told the Tribune. In the last two years, Young has seen its players go to Oregon State, Purdue, Illinois and UCF, but not DePaul.
*
Huntley, the No. 1 seed in the 48-team Pepsi Showdown girls soccer tournament, was to put its 10-game, unbeaten streak on the line Thursday, when it played host to Hinsdale South (Darien) in the second round of the tournament. The Sweet 16 portion of the tournament will be played Saturday at the Olympic Park Soccer Complex in Schaumburg. The title game is set for noon April 18 at Toyota Park in suburban Bridgeview, home of the MLS Chicago Fire and WPS Chicago Red Stars.
*
Neuqua Valley (Naperville) girls soccer team, a regional champion last year, pushed its early season unbeaten streak to four with a 2-1 win over Downers Grove South in the championship game of the DGS Invitational at Downers Grove. Noelle Leary, a transfer student from Belgium, scored the game-winner for Neuqua Valley (3-0-1). They’ll meet Francis Howell North and Nernix Hall in this weekend’s Hazelwood Showcase in St. Louis.
3 big performances
* Texas baseball recruit Mike Foltynewicz was named MVP of the WJOL Tournament after helping
Minooka to its second consecutive WJOL title with a 5-2 win over Lockport. Foltynewicz hit two home runs, drove in nine runs and had a win in three tournament games. Blaise Grebic hit a two-run homer in the title game for Minooka (8-1).
* St. Rita‘s
Joey Filomeno, a Louisville recruit, hit a two-run home run and two-run double, and was the winning pitcher, in the Mustangs‘ six-inning 19-9 win over St. Laurence (Burbank). The Vikings had won their first seven games.
*
Geneva's Chris Hipchen tied a school record, hitting three home runs in a 23-8 Western Sun Conference win over Kaneland. The Vikings (5-2) broke a school record with six home runs. Hipchen began his day by reaching base on a bunt single, then hit homers in the third, fifth and sixth innings. He was intentionally walked in the seventh inning. "Just a fun game to be a part of when everybody’s hitting like this," Hipchen told Sun-Times Media.
On deck
* Chicago High School Classic, 7:30 p.m., Gentile Center, Loyola University: The annual boys basketball game features some of the top seniors in Illinois, including Oregon State recruit Ahmad Starks of Whitney Young, Dayton recruit
Brandon Spearman of Class 4A champion Simeon, Notre Dame recruit Alex Dragicevich of Glenbrook North, and Gatorade Illinois Player of the Year Rayvonte Rice of Class 3A semifinalist Champaign Centennial, a Drake recruit.
* Southside Classic, April 11, at Standard Bank Stadium, Crestwood:
St. Rita (Chicago) vs. Mundelein Carmel, 4 p.m.; Brother Rice (Chicago) vs. Crestwood, 7 p.m. St. Rita, Class 4A runner-up in 2009, is off to an impressive start; the Mustangs have won seven of their first eight games.
Paul Bowker, a sports journalist for 25 years who has worked at newspapers nationwide, covers the Chicago area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at
bowkerpaul1@aol.com.
