With the arrival of March comes the arrival of spring sports at LFHS. Lake Forest is home to many strong athletic programs, including Boys Football, Girls Field Hockey, Boys Basketball, and both Boys and Girls Lacrosse.
But there are other sports that are also looking to instill this strong tradition of success. The LFHS Baseball program is looking to establish a new reputation and image in the conference, county, and the state.
After finishing last season with a 15-17 record and a first-round playoff exit, the Scouts are looking to have a winning season and make a deep playoff run.
Head Coach Michael Nilles is returning for his second season this spring. He believes his team has what it takes to be dominant and has quite high expectations. He credits the talents of his returning pitchers as a benefit to their team’s potential.
“Pitching is everything, no matter what level of baseball you’re playing. We have more experienced pitchers coming back this year than any year I can remember,” Coach Nilles said. “I expect us to finish in the top three in conference play and advance at least to the sectional round in the playoffs.”
With it being Nilles’ second year in charge of the program, he has learned a few things from last season that will be important this spring.
In many sports, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) has different playoff brackets for the State Championship, separating them by the number of students at each school. LFHS Baseball competes in the 3A bracket. The seeding for these brackets is often determined by a team’s performance against other schools in that bracket, not necessarily their conference or overall record.
“We had a better conference record last year than we had in years past, but ended up with a lower playoff seed due to our poor regular season record. Knowing this entering the season will impact who pitches during our 3A sectional games,” Nilles said.
Some schools in the 3A sectional for baseball include the Crystal Lake schools, Vernon Hills, Deerfield, and other local similar-sized schools.
The North Suburban Conference is a very strong conference in baseball. Mundelein, Libertyville, and Stevenson all have fantastic baseball programs that are consistently performing at a high level.
Being able to play conference teams twice this season should help prepare the Scouts for the playoffs. Nilles is excited for these challenges, but recognizes that a playoff seed is a bigger priority for his team.
“Winning conference games is always fun, but our real goal is to bring home some plaques for LFHS,” Nilles said. “Ironically, we are the only 3A school in our conference, so our conference record doesn’t impact our playoff seeding too much.”
Last season, the Scouts graduated only four seniors. All four seniors were valuable players, but four is a small number compared to many other seasons. With that, the team has many returning players including many returning seniors and some very talented juniors.
“I think we have a lot of talent up and down the lineup. Our team’s success is going to be extremely dependent on consistency. Almost everyone has at least a year of varsity baseball, so experience isn’t going to be an issue,” senior Ryan Valentincic said. “We don’t have a guy who will hit fifteen home runs, but everyone hits the ball at a very high rate. As long as we put balls in play and execute on defense we’re going to have a very solid team capable of making a deep playoff run.”
From a pitching standpoint, the Scouts have three players who already have two years of varsity pitching experience. All lefties, juniors Callum Morrison and Nate Brezak, alongside senior Hudson Scroggins, are three talented pitchers that will play very big roles in the Scouts season this spring. Their experience is valuable and they all have the talent to be good leaders and bring victories to this Scouts baseball team.
On the other side of home plate, the Scouts will have two juniors wearing the catcher’s gear. Both Charlie Quick and Dylan Cran are returning juniors from last season and have experience to be even better this season.
Quick proved himself last season after being pulled up from the Junior Varsity team last spring. Nilles expects him to have a larger role this season.
“Max Helmer and Charlie Quick also proved to be big run producers in 2024 and I’m looking for them to make an even bigger splash this spring,” Nilles said.
The other third year senior returners include outfielder Bink Hartline, and infielders Jack Lamberti and Ryan Valentincic. Hartline earned NSC All-Conference honors in 2024, while Lamberti and Valentincic also had strong seasons. Nilles expects the three of them to have large roles in the team’s offensive success this season.
“These three table setters need to have long at bats, drive up the pitch count, and get on base consistently,” Nilles said.
In addition to the many returning players, senior shortstop Stephen Cole returned to LFHS after a one-year stint at IMG Academy. Cole is committed to play baseball at St. Peter’s University next spring and should help bring some life to this team by helping them win some close and important games.
With the season quickly approaching, the team is excited to compete and work to have a great season.
“Now that tryouts are coming to an end, we are all very excited to get to work with our new group of guys. We all can’t wait for the weather to get better so we can get on the field and show people how much talent we have this year,” Hartline said.
The Scouts open their season on the road against Grayslake North on March 18. Following their game against Antioch on March 20, the Scouts will take their annual spring break trip to Louisville, KY.
Following spring break, it will be non-stop baseball and the Scouts will be playing multiple times a week until the end of the school year.
Many are excited to see what Nilles and this Scouts baseball team can do.
