EAST PEORIA — Team chemistry and intersquad competitiveness is a driving force behind East Peoria’s early-season success.
East Peoria is 10-4 and tied atop the Mid-Illini Conference standings at 4-0 through Thursday. The Raiders boast a group of seniors that have been playing baseball together since their little league days.
“I definitely think that is one of the biggest things,” senior RJ Duncheon said of cohesion between teammates. “We’re just trying to have as much fun as we can playing with our brothers and just riding it out, however it plays out.
“… Everybody wants to be here. Everybody’s fighting for a spot. … We’re all fighting for that right now. We’re all fighting to just be great.”
Duncheon is doing his best to make sure the wins continue to pile up. The Illinois State commit is 5-0 with 64 strikeouts and five walks with a 1.39 ERA in 30.1 innings. His bat has also been big, hitting .583 with eight doubles and 19 RBIs.
He’s the ace on a staff that is posting a 2.15 ERA over 91.0 innings.
“Realistically, it’s just put my team in the best position it can be,” Duncheon said. “Throw strikes. Be a chess player. Don’t play checkers.”
For Jackson Ahrens, he’s made America’s pastime look like child’s play. Late last month, the senior shortstop hit a pair of cycles in back-to-back games. His incredible five-game stretch featured him going 17-for-19 with four doubles, four triples, four home runs and 12 RBIs, while raising his batting average 340 points from .429 to .769.
“Everyone says, ‘It looks like a beach ball,’” Ahrens said. “It was definitely looking like a beach ball. I was seeing it well. … It was good and a lot of fun. Obviously, I was hitting it well, finding barrels. I was happy.”
But East Peoria coach Matt Plummer has been ecstatic. He lauds the success of his team as a direct correlation of their upbringing. There aren’t nearly enough adjectives for the 24-season coach to describe his players.
“It’s a special time in East Peoria,” he said. “I always say, ‘Half of life is showing. The other half is pulling the rope,’ and they are the best rope pullers I’ve ever seen. It comes straight from the guidance of their parents.
“… The caliber of human being on this team is greater than the caliber of athlete on this team.”
Optimism around the baseball program, Ahrens said, is momentum built from a successful football season and a record-setting boys basketball campaign.
“There’s a different vibe,” he said. “I think you started to see that last year; we saw success in those three sports and this year it just continued to happen. Everyone around the school wants to be a part of it.”
Take Dalton Oakman as the prime example of getting involved. The starting quarterback and 190-pound state-qualifying wrestler hadn’t played baseball since his junior high days. He convinced Plummer to give him a shot, throwing an offseason bullpen session that turned heads.
“He just starts filling up the strike zone,” Plummer said. “… I didn’t even think he could make the team from not playing baseball since he was in eighth grade.”
Well, Oakman made the team, and the left-hander has put together 40 strikeouts and two walks in 27.1 innings with a 1.54 ERA.
“Everyone has the same goal – we all want to win,” Ahrens said. “We all want to get better every day, so we’re teaching within each other … we know what we can do and we know what we want to do, but I think we try to stay away from the whole expectations and all that and just do what we can do at this moment.”
Looking ahead hasn’t been great for East Peoria in the past. That mindset has changed and it starts with Plummer. He points to the Raiders winning 78 games over the last three seasons but twice lost in Class 3A regional title games.
“In all of those years, we had those expectations,” Plummer said, “and I felt like they kind of suffocated us. … That expectation in the past has created a fear of not meeting (it). I think they deserve better than that. We’ll accept our fate and we’ll just live in the moment and enjoy every day.”
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Baseball team continues a ‘special time’ for East Peoria athletics
Reporting by Adam Duvall, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
