Lincoln Colts take
second at July 4
weekend tournament

[JULY 12, 2000]  The Lincoln HEAT Colt team (15- and 16-year-olds) took second place at the July 4 weekend River City Baseball Tournament in Evansville, Ind. The talented Colts began with a 13-2 win over Newburgh, Ind. Jeremy Ohmart, Derek Schrader and Danny Schick led the offense with three hits apiece, with Schrader banging out five RBIs, including a triple and home run. Blake Schoonover took the pitching win in the five-inning game, allowing five hits and striking out five.

Meremac Valley, Mo., was the HEAT's second foe. Leadoff hitter Ohmart again had three hits in the 6-4 win. Pitcher Andy Knopp faced only two batters more than the minimum in six scoreless innings, striking out nine and walking one.

 

 

 However, the third inning proved troublesome. Meremac scored four runs on five hits that put the Colts down 4-3 after three innings. But two Colt runs in the fifth and one in the seventh, combined with Knopp's shutdown of the Cats in the last four innings, assured the victory.

 

 

The third game, against Murray, Ky., was a blowout by the bat-powered Colts. Ryan Williams, Derek Schrader, John Peters, and Michael Martin had a multiple-hit game. Williams was the beneficiary of the pitching win, allowing just one hit in the mercy-ended three-inning game.

 

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Game four was officially won by forfeit over Madisonville, Ky. The fifth and final game in the round-robin tourney was highly anticipated. Ironically, the Evansville final saw two tourney-undefeated Illinois teams face off – the Lincoln Colts and the Bloomington Comets. The hot HEAT bats unfortunately cooled considerably in the 16-6 loss. The Comets showed hot bats of their own as they wacked 13 hits and 12 earned runs off starter Matt Boyer and reliever Ryne Komnick. Lincoln's bats came alive only in the fifth and sixth innings, when they scored two and four runs. The burst fell short, as the Comets had already etched 10 runs through five innings.

 

 

The Colts committed seven errors in the tournament, three contributing to the final loss. The tournament offense was still impressive. Nine Colts (Jason Fitzpatrick, Knopp, Komnick, Martin, Ohmart, Peters, Schick, Schrader and Williams) had an on-base percentage of .400 or higher. And Ohmart, Schrader, and Williams hit .500 or better for the tourney. Schrader accumulated 10 RBIs and tallied two home runs and a triple.

 

[Rich Knopp]


New coach for Lincoln College
Lady Lynx softball

[JULY 10, 2000]  Lincoln College has announced that Jennifer Ciaccio has taken the position of head coach for the Lady Lynx softball program.

Ciaccio says she is looking forward to building the Lincoln College softball program. "We have a solid group of athletes coming in, led by Ronni Beebe (Lewistown), Brandi Barnes (Canton) and Carrie Pestle (Macomb), but we will be young. We'll have to see during the fall season exactly what we have."

Lincoln College Athletic Director Allen Pickering says he’s happy about the announcement. "We’re fortunate to get someone with her experience and qualifications this early. It was important to us to not have a big gap in time when searching for a coach for our softball program. We’re very pleased with the outcome."

 

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This is Ciaccio’s first head coaching position; she was the assistant varsity coach of the softball program at Millikin University in Decatur before joining Lincoln College. Ciaccio also played ball at Millikin University and with summer teams such as the Decatur Breeze, the Decatur Scorpions and the Springfield Rockettes.

She replaces Nicole Turley, who left this spring semester to pursue other interests.

Ciaccio is originally from Momence and is currently working on her doctorate in English studies at Illinois State University.

 

 

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