Five Sauk Valley baseball players to watch this season

Austin Castaneda, Rock Falls, sr. P/OF

A Mineral Area College baseball recruit, he was an All-Big Northern Conference first-teamer and hit .362 with a .460 OBP as a junior. He also led the team with 36 runs scored and had 38 hits and 17 stolen bases.

Evan Bushman, Newman, jr., P

An All-TRAC East second-teamer last season, he was 11-1 on the mound and set the school’s single-season record in wins. He had 42 strikeouts in 61 innings pitched with a 3.21 ERA. He pitched a complete-game win with seven strikeouts, one walk, three hits and two earned runs allowed in the Class 2A sectional semifinals on the Comets' trek to state.

Carson Akins, Forreston, jr., CF

An All-State first-team selection in Class 1A by the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association and an All-Northwest Upstate Illini Conference first-teamer last season, he led the Cardinals with 51 hits, 18 doubles, a .459 batting average, .552 on-base percentage, and 1.246 on-base plus slugging. He also stole 21 bases and knocked in 32 runs for the conference champions.

Brock Lehman, Ashton-Franklin Center, sr., C

An All-NUIC first-teamer, he had a school-record seven home runs last spring and batted .431 with a .558 OBP. He led the team with 25 RBIs and had a .930 fielding percentage.

Hunter Miller, Eastland, sr., SS: An All-NUIC first-teamer, he was the recipient of the Jamie Koehn Award as conference MVP as a junior. He led the team with 28 RBIs and hit .464/.606/1.259. Miller had 10 doubles and one home run with 21 runs scored and 25 walks.