Prep Sports Notebook: Unity softball wins 2, SJO baseball rebounds for a conference win


Unity's Joop and Jones earn All-Conference accolades
Unity's Taylor Joop and Logan Jones learned last week that they are All-Conference Scholar Athletes for the 2020-21 academic year by the Illini Prairie Conference. Both received recognition at luncheon held at Illinois State University on April 29.



Rockets' Taylor Joop puts the ball in play during her team's home game against Central Catholic. Joop, who plans to continue her academic and athletic career at Heartland College, scored the game-winning run in Unity's 5-4 win on Saturday. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks


Knott sets new school record in the shot
St. Joseph-Ogden senior Hayden Knott raised the bar in the shot put setting a new school record with a throw of 17.14 meters on Saturday at the Rantoul Invite. The toss was also good enough to secure a first place finish in the event with throwers from Hersher, Danville and Pleasant Plains among the field of 17 competitors.

Knott also placed first in the discus throw beating his nearest competition by nearly 2 meters. His winning throw went 53.70 meters.



Miller, Altenbaumer pile on RBIs
Together, St. Joseph-Ogden's Coby Miller and Tyler Altenbaumer tallied nine RBIs, four and five respectively, in the Spartans' 17-9 win over Monticello on Saturday.

Miller was 3-for-3 and Andrew Beyers (3 RBI) added a 3-for-5 performance from the batter's box.

Zach Martinie picked up the win for the Spartans while Monticello's Cole Dasher suffered the loss after the conference pairing.

SJO improves to 10-1 on the season following their 3-run loss to Mahomet-Seymour at home on Friday.



Unity softball picks up second conference win
Unity Taylor Joop scored the winning, go-ahead run on a fly ball from Ruby Tarr in the bottom of the 6th innning in the Unity softball team's conference game against Central Catholic on Saturday.

Pitcher Taylor Henry had 3 hits and on RBI. Hailey Flesch secured one hit in four trips to the plate and delivered a pair of RBI.

Facing 29 batters, Henry gave up 9 hits and 4 runs after 104 pitches.



Good Graces win for the Rockets
Grace Frye earned a pitching win after seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits, striking out five and walking one in a 6-2 softball decision over Newton.

Meanwhile, Gracie Renfrow was 3-for-3 and pushed 2 runs across the plate for the Rockets. She collected a triple on a fly ball to center on her third pitch in the bottom of the 3rd inning allowing Erica Steinman to score and homered two innings later on a solo shot to right field.

The win keeps Unity season untarnished at 6-0. Frye and Renfrow host Villa Grove on Monday at 4pm and have a game 2 rematch against Central Catholic on the road on Tuesday.



Spartan track team win Invite title
The St. Joseph-Ogden boys track team tallied 178 points to win this year's Rantoul Invite title.

Monticello finished in second place with 162 points and host Rantoul collected 106 points for a third place finish. Unity finished 6th (77 points) in the 12-team field.

SJO's Brady Buss took second in the 200-meter dash, Brandon Mattsey clocked a 4:53.12 in the 1600-meter run for the meet title and Hayden Knott won both throwing event to lift the Spartans on Saturday.



Unity baseball team drops first loss
After a dominating 2-0 start, the Rockets' baseball team fell 7-4 on the road to Illinois Valley Central (7-1) on Saturday.

Damian Knoll took the loss after a two-inning appearance scattering 4 hits and 3 walks.

Knoll (1 RBI) along with Blake Kimball scored one run apiece. Tyler Hensch, 1-for-3 from the plate, also had one RBI and double.



3 Spartan homers crush Sages
Sandwiched between two home runs by Shayne Immke, St. Joseph-Ogden's Kaylee Ward went deep in the seventh inning for one of her own. Immke put the first of two homers out of the park in the 1st inning and repeated her effort with another in the fifth.

The hot bats, which helped SJO to improve to a 7-4 season, allowed the Spartans to easily win, 12-6.

Scoring in five of their seven innings, St. Joseph-Ogden tacked on a pair of runs in each of the last three innings of the game to pull away on the scoreboard.

Pitching duties were shared with Alyssa Acton, who earned the win after five innings, and Sophia Martlage closed out the game with 20 pitches in the last 2 innings.


Big Picture: SJO baseball picks up 10th win in six innings

The St. Joseph-Ogden baseball team scored ten runs in the first two innings of their league contest against Prairie Central last year on April 9. What made this game special was head coach Josh Haley picked up his 300th win of his coaching career with the six-inning, 13-3 victory.

It was also a special day for Nick Boggs tagged a two-run homer, the first in his career, over the fence in the 13-3 shellacking at the SJO Sports Complex. The senior, having a career day, plated seven SJO runs against the Hawks. Shortstop Crayton Burnett contributed another five RBI.

Then junior Joey Action pitched the first four innings and struck out four batters before retiring to book the win. Zach Martini closed the session striking out three Prairie Central hitters after an inning and some change.

Here's moments from the game last spring that should bring back memories for last year's players.


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Burnett leads St. Joseph-Ogden volleyball effort over Rantoul

Kennedi Burnett pounded a team-high 8 kills and delivered nine of St. Joseph-Ogden's 32 digs in their 25-16, 25-7 conference volleyball win over Rantoul earlier this week on Tuesday.

With the help of seniors Katelyn Berry and Payton Vallee, who contributed six kills in the match, the Spartans improve to 17-4 on the season. The victory also marks head coach Abby McDonald's 296th career coaching win.

The varsity volleyball campaign moves ahead with two road matches next week. The Spartans kickoff the week with a non-conference meeting at Tri-Valley on Monday and then travel to Tolono to face the 22-1 Unity Rockets.

Then, it is a pair of back-to-back home matches starting Thursday after Illinois High School Association reveals their postseason path to Redbird Arena. The seeding for this year's postseason play is scheduled to be announced by the IHSA at 4 pm on Thursday, October 10.

The Spartans host Pontiac on Thursday and IVC on Saturday in Illini Prairie Conference action at the end of the week.


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Oswego runner Kelly Allen
Kelly Allen lets out a roar while running in the half marathon course on Washington Ave in Urbana. Allen, hailing from Oswego, NY, finished the course at 2:33:30, good for 46th out of 75 runners in the women's 45-49 age group on Saturday. See more photos from the 2024 Illinois Marathon here.

Photos: Sentinel/Clark Brooks