When Garrett Peters arrived at Geneva, few would have imagined the player he has become.
Undersized and admittedly not a good hitter, Peters started to put things together the summer after his sophomore year.
“He was a B baseball player when he was younger,” Geneva coach Brad Wendell said. “But over his sophomore to junior year, he grew up and prepared himself.
“We were really upset we didn’t get to see him last year. He had one of the best tryouts.”
After having his junior season wiped out due to the coronavirus pandemic, Peters is finally getting to show how much his hard work has paid off.
He enters the week as Geneva’s team leader in four categories with 29 hits, 27 runs, eight doubles and a .377 batting average.
“I worked my butt off in the weight room,” Peters said. “I grew, my arm got stronger, and I worked on speed and agility. I just worked hard. It’s all coming together, so it’s nice to see.”
Perhaps as impressive as Peters’ offensive development has been his play in the outfield. He was new to the position until his sophomore year.
Now, he has turned into one of the area’s biggest weapons.
“He has been a catalyst,” Wendell said. “His outfield play has been phenomenal.”
Peters has committed to continuing his career next season at Dubuque. How he discovered the program is a story in itself. He was on the way to visit his brother, Dawson, at Northern Iowa when he saw the Dubuque campus off the highway.
“I didn’t even reach out to Dubuque (before),” Peters said. “I saw the campus and I asked for a tour.”
Peters’ emergence has been big for Geneva (13-11, 11-8), which swept a pair of series from Batavia and Wheaton Warrenville South in the DuKane Conference and took two of three from Glenbard North and St. Charles East. The Vikings also won a game against St. Charles North.
Last week, Geneva cooled off, getting swept by Wheaton North. The Vikings still managed the third seed in the sectional, however.
“We were playing really good baseball,” Wendell said. “We have the potential, just like anyone in our conference. Anybody can beat anybody, and we were doing that for a while. We just had a couple tough days.”
Zoom ahead: Chris Baum took over Bartlett’s program in October 2019, but he didn’t get to coach the team in a game until this season.
Baum received the call that last spring was canceled in March when he was getting ready to throw batting practice.
To fill the time he was away from his team, Baum and his coaching staff got creative. They put together an interactive webinar series with notable figures around baseball for the team.
From analytics experts to college coaches to mental skills experts, the Hawks met virtually with several people who imparted their wisdom to the team.
“We ran about 35 Zoom meetings, just picking guys’ brains,” Baum said. “I think we took advantage of the opportunity we had. We took advantage of the parameters we were allowed to work within.”
Seeds galore: The DuKane Conference had plans to hold a conference tournament this season, but those plans were scrapped last week when the sectional seeds were announced.
With the DuKane holding the top four seeds in the sectional, the conference tournament was scrapped as Lake Park, St. Charles North, Geneva and St. Charles East could face off again.
“Everybody is super competitive,” Wendell said. “It’s prepping us to play a sectional conference tournament if we play like we can.”
The other intrigue in the seedings came in the smaller classes. Newark started out 9-0 before losing to Ottawa Marquette. The Norsemen responded with five straight wins, however, in earning a top seed in their Class 1A sectional.
Harvest Christian reached the 1A state finals in 2019. Bumped up to 2A, the Lions are hoping to return to state. They also earned a top seed.
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.