Arcola’s Whisman and ALAH’s Hilligoss named second team all-area N-G baseball
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By Mike Monahan
CHAMPAIGN – Arcola’s Brevyn Whisman and Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond’s Will Hilligoss, both recent graduates, made the 12-member second team Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette All-Area baseball team.
Hilligoss helped the Knights, coached by David McGrath, go 21-10 overall and 9-1 in the LPC, good for second place. Hilligoss led the team with a .472 batting average and was tops in hits (50), extra base hits (16-seven doubles, five triples, four home runs), second in runs batted in with 33 and second in runs (40). Second in stolen bases (26). The Knights won its first Class 1A regional and second-ever regional (winning Class A in 2005 as Arthur-Lovington co-op).
Arcola’s Whisman, who is headed to Quincy University, led Arcola with a .541 batting average and had a team-high in runs batted in with 39 as well as the fewest strikeouts at just 11. He led in singles, doubles and home runs with 19, 12 and eight respectively. He also pitched a team-high 47 ⅓ innings and had a 1.93 earned run average (second on the team). He had a team-leading 91 strikeouts. The Purple Riders, coached by Mike Phillips, finished 11-11 overall and 7-3 in the LPC, good for fourth place.
No other County Chronicle area player was on the second team or on the 12-member first team.
Named to the 94-member honorable mention team were ALAH’s Marcus Otto and John Williams along with Arcola’s Jackson Griffth and Brody Phillips. Tuscola’s Evan Englehardt, Cooper Lyons, Cooper Musgrave and Jon Pettry as well as Villa Grove’s Jesse Gire, Thomas Vandeventer and Max Wilson also earned honorable mention status.
Tuscola, coached by Caleb Englehardt, went 18-15 overall and 5-5 in the Central Illinois Conference, good for third place, while Villa Grove was 8-11 overall and 5-5 in the LPC, good for seventh place, under coach Heath Wilson.
Phillips will be a senior at Arcola as will all of the honorable mention Tuscola players and Villa Grove’s Gire, while Wilson will be a junior for the Blue Devils.
St. Joseph-Ogden’s Asher Pruemer was the News-Gazette All-Area Player of the Year while his coach, Josh Haley, was the 36th News-Gazette Area Coach of the Year.