Baseball: Illinois Valley shines in ICA All-Star game

BLOOMINGTON - The Illinois Valley players came out to shine in the Illinois Coaches Association (ICA) All-Star baseball game Wednesday night at Jack Horenberger Field on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University.

It was an Illinois Valley and Tri-County Conference sweep of the MVP awards with St. Bede’s Nathan Husser awarded MVP by the Blue Team and Seneca’s Casey Clennon from the Red Team.

Both went 3 for 3 on the night with Husser collecting one hit in the first game and two in the nightcap and Clennon flipping the stat line with two hits in the opener and one in Game 2.

“The IV was well represented with those two receiving MVP awards,” said St. Bede coach Bill Booker, who served as the game administrator.

Hall’s Max Bryant threw three scoreless innings to close out the win for the Red team in the opener with five strikeouts, allowing three hits.

St. Bede’s Alex Ankewicz (2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) and Marquette’s Carson Zellers (4 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 K) each throwing two innings in relief for the Blue team in Game 2.

“Ank and Zellers threw well and I was impressed with Max’s performance. It’s always great for the IV,” Booker said.

The Red team won both games by identical 5-1 scores.

“This game is only made possible by the many people that assist and by the coaches nominating their seniors for one final hurrah,” said Booker, who was an ICA coach in 2010. “There were a lot of smiles on players faces throughout the evening. So I think the ICA and IHSBCA mission was accomplished.”