DePaul Prep Wins Seventh Straight Regional 56-36 Over Latin

DePaul Prep Defeated Latin 75-53 in IHSA Sectional Semi-Final

Rams move on to face Regina Dominican in the Sectional Championship on Thursday evening in the Tom Winiecki Gym.

DePaul Prep Drops Latin 58-30 for Seventh Straight Regional

Electricity was in air in the Tom Winiecki Gym on Friday night. There was a large crowd, an overflow student second curiously attired in beach wear.

Latin didn’t get the memo. Teams like this always worry me. I remember a couple losses to Francis Parker in years past. I hoped it would not all go horrible wrong after such a successful 23-5 season.

Tom Kleinschmidt wrote the memo so he wouldn’t let anything go wrong.

The Romans came out with a ton of energy. They have some athletes who scored early. The Rams length on defense proved difficult for the undersized Romans to overcome. The Rams opened an early lead that just widened as the clock ticked off.

DePaul Prep has won regional championship for the last seven year: 2015 over North Chicago, 2016 over Northridge Prep, 2017 over Latin, 2018 over Foreman, 2019 over Ridgewood, 2020 over Farragut and this year over Latin again. This is a testament to the successful program the school and its coaches have built.

Now we are talking about sectional wins not just regionals. And talking about the state tournament. Which brings us to the upcoming games. The Rams will have to get through the best 2A teams in the state to get back downstate—Orr, Clark and Leo. If they can do that, they will deserve to be state champs.

One at a time. Orr on Tuesday at Collins (North Lawndale Sectional). 7:00 p.m. The light in that gym is miserable.

I went a little crazy taking pictures on Friday. I processed like a hundred photos. These are the game photos. I will have to do a post for the rest of the photos, which frankly are better than these.

DePaul Prep Edges Latin 4-3 to Win 2A Regional

The DePaul Prep Rams survived a very good Latin Romans team 4-3 Saturday evening at Kerry Wood Field to win their second consecutive 2A Regional Championship.

Wonderful game played by both teams. Romans played flawless defense. Rams pitching got the better of the Romans.

Rams move on to face Lisle High School at Illinois Benediction on Wednesday evening. The Rams beat Lisle 10-6 at Lisle in March. They look to repeat that performance and advance to the Sectional Final on Saturday against the winner of Aurora Christian (or Westmont—game suspended with Aurora Christian winning 10-0 in the 4th) v. Holy Trinity.

As for the photos, despite a 50/50 chance of rain at game time, conditions were pretty good. It did not rain at all. It was overcast but still pretty bright. No harsh shadows.

I shot at 1/2000 shutter speed and about 1000-1250 ISO. The high shutter speed is necessary for baseball. Next time it is bright I will go higher. The ISO graininess showed up on the tight crops but the real tight crops weren’t usable anyway.

I mostly changed around positioning. I was out on the field away from the fence, which I would rather not do but I had to change things up.

Not too many more baseball games this season. We’ll have to carry on next year. Hopefully by then I will have a 300mm 2.8. Absolutely necessary lens for baseball.