Baseball notes: Teammates since age 9, Downers Grove North’s Jude Warwick and Jimmy Janicki join 100-hit club

Jude Warwick and Jimmy Janicki both recently joined an exclusive club in Downers Grove North baseball history.

Both seniors topped the 100-hit mark for their careers, becoming the sixth and seventh players to achieve the honor over the last 25 years.

Warwick, a Michigan State recruit, said the 100-hit career mark is a special honor that he will cherish for the rest of his baseball career.

“It’s really special and an awesome thing that Jimmy and I were both able to achieve this milestone,” Warwick said. “Jimmy is a phenomenal hitter and player who I have been able to play with since nine. For us both to be able to achieve this (milestone), it’s an awesome feeling.

“Getting 100 hits is very special to me. It’s something so few people at Downers Grove North have done. It’s a milestone for all the hard work that no one saw, like hitting for hours trying to perfect the craft, having countless coaches help me get there and having a supportive team behind my back always, so it really means a lot.”

Janicki, a star football player who committed to play baseball at Troy, said he was thrilled to join the 100-hit club with his longtime friend and teammate.

“It’s super special to me,” Janicki said of the honor. “I wouldn’t want to do it for any other program. It also means a lot to have Jude so the same. I’ve been playing with him since I was nine years old. We have always treated each other like brothers and playing with him is special.”

Downers Grove North coach Kyle Briscoe said Warwick, a shortstop, and Janicki have been linked together for years. The Trojans (25-6, 16-1) have clinched back-to-back West Suburban Conference Silver Division titles for the first time in program history. Janicki had two hits and four RBIs in Monday’s loss to York.

Both players will be honored before Thursday’s game against York for their career accomplishment and receive a wood plate with their names on it, Briscoe said.

Janicki and Warwick’s former teammate George Wolkow was the last person to reach the 100-hit mark.

“Thursday is little bit of an icing on the cake for the careers they’ve had so far at Downers Grove North,” Briscoe said. “All the other players in the 100-hit (club) are high-profile and went to Division I programs. You have to have three good years of a pretty high average to get 100 career hits.”

“They been constant workhorses for the past three years,” Briscoe added. “They’ve both been through the battles in past couple of years and they are battle tested and are two of the more mentally tough guys I’ve coached.”

Janicki, a catcher, is batting .416 with 42 hits, 26 singles, six doubles, three triples, seven home runs, 39 RBIs and 12 walks from the three-spot in the order.

At leadoff, Warwick is batting .444 with 42 hits, 22 singles, 11 doubles, six triples, three home runs, 23 RBIs and 18 stolen bases.

Briscoe said Warwick’s development since being called up in his sophomore season helped energize the offense. The 6-foot-1, 155-pound Warwick handled the move to shortstop this season with ease, Briscoe said. Warwick picked up the win in relief in Wednesday’s 5-3 extra-inning win over York.

“Jude’s been getting a few scouts looking at him, just in how incredibly athletic he is,” Briscoe said. “He’s wiry, but not small and they project out with his weight. He’s got power with six triples and three home runs and got the ability to drive the ball out of the yard to go with incredible bat speed. Defensively this year, he’s been a rock and unbelievable at short this year after playing second base last year. He’s also been in pitching in relief a couple of times out of necessity because we don’t have a slew of power arms.

Warwick said he worked hard to become an elite player, adding strength to give him more pop at the plate and working on his defense.

“When I was called up as a sophomore, I had big dreams but my (main) goal was to help win as many games as possible,” Warwick said. “I always wanted to play Division I baseball. It was always a dream, but at the time all that mattered to me was getting the next win. Even now, when I focus on the same details, it helps with the bigger goals.

“One of the main things I worked on this offseason was lifting weights consistently to create more strength,” Warwick added. “I really ramped up the amount of lifting and paired it with my diet to create more strength and power coming into this year.”

Lemont on fire

Lemont is one of the hottest teams in the Chicago area. Since dropping an 18-5 decision to Lincoln-Way West on April 27, Lemont has been hitting the cover off the baseball and getting quality pitching to carry an 11-game winning streak into Thursday’s game against Lockport.

“We’ve had been kind of up and down because we had a lot of new guys to the varsity program and team and they had to get their feet wet and they had to figure things out,” Lemont coach Brian Storako said. “But they worked hard and trusted the process and are starting to click now when we wanted it to click.

“Lincoln-Way West was not a good game at all. They kind of stuck it to us. It was a reality check. We became more of a team.”

Lemont’s offense has been a force all season, but especially during the winning streak. Lemont (24-8, 14-4 South Suburban Blue) has scored 107 runs in its past 10 games, including a thrilling 6-3 victory over Montini in 11 innings on Wednesday.

“We’ve been hitting consistently the whole year, but some guys have gotten hot of late,” Storako said. “What’s turned it around for us is our pitching and defense. We had been trying to throw hard instead of strikes. Our pitchers are throwing strikes now and trusting their defense to make plays. Our defense has been top notch, especially yesterday against Montini. We’ve had so many guys make an impact and stepped up and take charge.”

Extras

Downers Grove South (23-6-1, 16-0) has also won 10 games in a row and clinched the West Suburban Gold. Willowbook has a three-game winning streak and Morton has won four in a row.