Norsemen Baseball

The playoff run is here for the Newark baseball squad. In their first round game, they had to take on the LaMoille Lions on Monday, May 18. It was a Norsemen winner, as the 3 seed beat the 6 seed, 17 to 1. Cam Myre got the win, pitching the first three innings and giving up 1 run. Conner Christian pitched the next two innings without allowing any runs. “It was a good game, a nice way to get the regionals going,” said Coach J.R. Veliz. With this win, they had to play the 2 seed, Putnam County, at Putnam County on Friday, May 22. The Norsemen unfortunately were knocked out of the Regional Tournament in that game, losing 11-2. The Norsemen finished the regular season with a 13-13 and 9-7 conference record. It wasn’t the easiest year for Newark, but they battled throughout the year. The team had two starting seniors and a foreign exchange student. Matt Eike and Zach Ward are both 4-year starters and brought great talent to this game. Matt Eike, the 3 hitter, Of/C was all conference and all academic. “He was one of the best players I’ve coached here,” said Coach Veliz. “He had so many tools to his game, a wonderful player.” He will being attending Augustana University. Zach Ward, the solid defender and hitter, saw his averages around 330 every year. Next year he will be going to Joliet Junior College. Fikri Rachman, the foreign exchange student from Indonesia, had a wonderful time here in America. Fikri said that when he leaves Newark, he is going to miss his time on the baseball team the most. By Ian Cerney and Steve McGrath

Softball Senior Night

Softball Senior Night was held on May 7. Two seniors were honored: Caroline and Lexi. As of press time, the team was continuing to play in the regional tournament.

Photos courtesy of Caroline and Lexi.

Norsemen Baseball

"It’s a Norsemen winner"; those words were said quite a bit throughout the month of April about the Newark baseball team as they went 8-4. They started off the month with their first conference series against the Royals of Hinckley Big-Rock. The Norsemen got off to a hot start at HBR piling up runs from the start of the game. Austin Pagel tossed a quality 6 innings allowing 7 runs. "He pitched a quality game. We know what we're going to get from him, which is strikes. There was one inning were they got their runs when he left the ball up but for the first 5 innings he was marvelous." Said coach J.R. Veliz.

In that game, Tyler Mulligan was able to secure the save, his first of the season in a 13-8 winner. The second matchup was a pitchers' duel between Kendall Endres and HBR's junk throwing side armer. Down 3-2 going into the bottom of the 7th Austin Pagel hit a walk off hitting in Cam Myre and Matt Eike for a 4-3 win.

LaMoille was rained out on Thursday April 9 but on Friday April 10 the Norsemen were back in action beating the Lions in six innings 18-1. Saturday April 11 the Norsemen went to Channahon to face Families of Faith Christian Academy. Winning both of those games in six innings allowing only a total of 8 runs and scoring a combined 30 runs. It was a successful month for the Norsemen as they got a good start in conference going 6-3.

By: Ian Cerney and Steve McGrath

Get Your Game Face On: Newark Softball

Newark Softball is in full swing! The lady Norsemen have kicked off the season with some wins under their belts.

They have played some conference games against Somonauk, Serena, and Earlville. They have also played some games against some big non-conference teams, like Plano and Wheaton Academy.

May will be a big month for the team. They will kick it off with playing Dwight at Dwight on May 1. On May 2 they have a double-header against Kirkland-Hiawatha at home.

They will finish up their conference games, playing Indian Creek on May 6 at home and May 12 at Indian Creek.

The Lady Norsemen play some non-conference opponents, like Aurora Christian at home on May 7 and Gardner-South Wilmington away on May 14. Junior Megan DiClementi says, “As long as we keep our head in the game we will be strong leading into the post season.”

On May 16 they will play in the Putnam County Tournament at Putnam County. The tournament starts at 8:00.

By Maddie Friestad