Mycapture

9 photos
CALUMET CITY | T.F. South's Daviea Cowans and Cori Reynolds had never hit inside-the park homers. In fact, Reynolds had never hit a round-tripper until Monday, yet alone hit them in consecutive games. But Reynolds hit her second homer in her life and did it the hard way on Tuesday. Like Cowans, she had to hustle around the bases, and it was something she enjoyed. "I just kept running and there was no way I was going to stop," Reynolds said. "I was pretty mad when I came up to bat because I had struck out in the first inning. I just got a hold off a good pitch and drove it." The Rebels had little trouble with their District 215 rivals as they won the South Suburban Blue game 19-3 in five innings. All but two of T.F. South's runs were unearned.
5/7/2013
Album ID: 1650671
Photos by John Smierciak

12 photos
HARVEY | There are home meets, and then there are HOME meets. Nobody was more at home at Saturday's Thornton Classic than Thornton senior Maurice Buchanan. The long-jumper, high-jumper and jack-of-all trades sprinter lives in the blue house bordering the south end of Thornton's football stadium, so close that the Wildcats' locker room is farther from the finish line than his own bedroom. "He's about as Harvey as can be," Thornton track coach Vince McAuliffe said. "He's true-blue Thornton. He bleeds purple, and growing up in that house, he's been listening to me yell at people for 12 years." Buchanan, a state qualifier in the long jump last year and a member of Thornton's Class 3A third-place finishers as a sophomore, is rarely McAuliffe's target. Saturday, as Thornton (129 points) finished second to Evanston (167) at the seven-team classic, Buchanan won the long jump in a season-best 22 feet, 7 inches, finished second in the high jump (6-0) and ran in the finals of the 100 meters and the third leg of the Wildcats' winning 1,600-meter relay. When the state series begins, he'll likely compete in the two jumps, the 400 relay and the 800 relay.
5/4/2013
Album ID: 1649237
Photos by John Smierciak

9 photos
LANSING | All season, the one thing that has hindered T.F. South's softball team more than the weather is giving the opponent a big inning, then coming up short. Monday was no exception as the Rebels let South Suburban Blue-leading Tinley Park have a five-run third inning in the Titans' 13-3 win. Tinley Park (11-3, 10-0) broke open a 1-0 game in the third, then added three runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings. "We let them have five or six outs in the third and when you let a team like Tiney have that many outs, they are going to take advantage of it," T.F. South coach Jamie Arundel said. "It's one or two bad innings that hurt us. I thought we hit the ball pretty well, but we also made a few (baserunning) mistakes."
4/22/2013
Album ID: 1642701
Photos by John Smierciak

7 photos
LANSING | For T.F. South starter Devin Pieper, it sure makes a day on the pitching rubber easier when your team scores eight runs in the first. The Rebels used an eight run bottom of the first to overcome South Suburban Blue Conference rival T.F. North 17-0 in five innings. Rebels leadoff hitter Marcy Evans was 4 for 4 from the plate with two RBIs and four runs scored. Rebel cleanup hitter Daviea Cowans was 2 for 3 with three runs scored and two RBIs. "I felt energized at the plate today," Evans said. "I felt confident and comfortable. I was seeing the ball well. It was a little cold, but all the hard work we did paid off in the end."
4/13/2013
Album ID: 1638845
Photos by John Smierciak

10 photos
PALOS HILLS | Jauan Wesley says he can tell when he wins a race, even though he�s looking straight ahead and the fellow next to him is nearly even with him. Call it a runner�s intuition. The good ones have it. Wesley put it to use twice in Saturday�s windblown Stagg Invitational. Both times, the Thornton junior was right, even though he won by the narrowest of margins. The first example came in the 100-meter final. Both Wesley and teammate Jalen Banks breezed in their heats, and when starter Pete Shreck fired the gun for the final, they were side-by-side from start to finish. When they came back to the line to get their times, Wesley said to Banks, �I gotcha.� And Banks said, �But I almost caught you.� Each knew their placing before they were told their times: 10.51 gale-aided hand-timed seconds for Wesley, 10.52 for Banks.
4/6/2013
Album ID: 1635412
Photos by John Smierciak