Newman still looking for more after back-to-back state runs

This year’s Newman baseball team doesn’t have a single player on the roster who has finished the season outside the Elite Eight.

But even after back-to-back trips to the state tournament – and eight key players returning from last year’s fourth-place team in Class 2A – it still feels like the Comets are trying to prove themselves.

“You’ve just got to keep looking forward,” junior Evan Bushman said. “The last two years were great, but you know you can still do better. You’ve got to keep working hard in the offseason.”

Since the 2020 spring season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Newman has won sectional titles each of the past four years. After consecutive losses in Class 1A supersectionals in 2021 and 2022, the Comets lost seven players from the regular rotation to graduation over those two seasons.

But built around three-time all-stater and Los Angeles Dodgers draftee Brendan Tunink, Newman advanced to the state finals the next two seasons with relatively young teams.

Now, those young players are the team leaders, and they’re eager to keep the current run of success going.

“It starts with the leaders on the team, the seniors and the juniors that have been around, to lead the young guys and show them how we do things,” junior Garet Wolfe said. “Taking a step back and just looking at things as a veteran player, it gives you a different perspective on the young guys that have a lot of talent. I’m really excited. I can’t wait for this group to get going.”

It’s rare that a team that’s had so much success in recent years still can bring back so much experience from those deep postseason runs, but the Comets find themselves in that enviable position – even with the loss of Tunink, who set all but one single-season and career program record in his stellar four-year career.

Seven players who started in the field last year along with Bushman, who set the single-season record with an 11-0 record as a starting pitcher, return from the team that defied the odds to finish fourth at state after moving up a class because of the IHSA success multiplier.

“The last couple of years, we’ve had really young teams; my sophomore year, over half of our starters were underclassmen,” senior Daniel Kelly said. “But having all that experience, having guys who have gotten those opportunities, it makes it way easier to have a lot of leaders. Having so many guys who started on varsity their freshman and sophomore years, we know what it’s like. We’ve had great leaders in the past to look up to and follow in their footsteps.”

Although it can be tough to replace the talent the Comets have lost over the past few seasons, the one thing the returning experience really helps with is the mental aspect. In a sport where even the best hitters fail at least half the time, that mental fortitude can be the key between wins and losses.

Because of the long postseason runs, Newman has that in spades, and there’s a lot of trust up and down the lineup during the inevitable rough patches throughout the season.

“You’re going to be in tough situations, and it’s nice to know that we’ve got a lot of guys who know what to do and how to work through them and get out of them,” Bushman said.

All the additional postseason baseball the past few seasons also helps with preparation. The Comets understand what they need to work on in order to win games not only during the season, but on the biggest stage.

“The goal is to get back [to state], and do better [when we get there],” Kelly said. “We’ve been working hard in practice, and knowing what we need to get better on helps us a lot. Situational stuff, the little things like that have really helped us the last two years, I think that builds our confidence up.”