ICC Baseball Fall Practice Season Likely to Be Tough But Productive
With the fall practice season underway, the Illinois Central College Cougars baseball team is looking to lay solid foundations for this coming spring. The fall season is basically like spring training. Scores cannot be published. However, it gives coaches, team members, and fans a chance to take a look and see how ready they will be for the coming competitive season.
ICC baseball head coach Brett Kelley says he’s satisfied with what he’s seen so far.
“We seem to be really good defensively and have good depth all around. Our pitching should be a strong point. Offensively, we are very athletic. We have great team speed. We have a few guys in the middle of the lineup who should be able to hit the ball out of the park,” Kelley says.
This fall season features an opponent that is an NCAA Division I team that is a neighboring school to ICC. They will play against Bradley University of Peoria four times.
“We play a very difficult schedule,” Kelley says. “This should have us ready to make a run in the Regional again this spring.”
The Cougars play the first of two doubleheaders against Bradley at ICC’s Thome Field on October 1. Their next meeting will be at Dozer Park on October 14.
This fall’s Cougars will look a little bit different than last year. NJCAA first-team All-American Josh Heyder is moving on to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and will continue playing baseball. The last time a Cougar had that honor was Mason McCoy in 2015. McCoy recently had a big career move, when he moved up to the Major League with the Toronto Blue Jays.
ICC coach Kelley says he loves to see Cougars get to higher levels.
“That’s a goal of our program, to move players on to the next level,” Kelley says. “It’s always exciting seeing the players move on and their excitement to play at a school at the next level. It’s especially rewarding to see a former player make it to the Major Leagues. That is a goal for many of our players and see them live it is a tremendous honor.”
But first things first. Kelley says ICC baseball is focused on playing hard and staying focused.
“The team is starting to see that details matter and are bought in on our team approach. We will have plenty of time in the off-season to concentrate on strength and conditioning and working on their swing and pitching mechanics,” Kelley says. “Once we get to spring practice in January, it will be go time.”