Preseason Power 25 Countdown: No. 12 Libertyville

For the second consecutive season, the Wildcats were ousted from the postseason by their intra-conference nemesis Mundelein. Libertyville played the Mustangs three times in May before their sectional semifinal meeting and won, sweeping the three-game series. They knew the Mustangs had one of the state’s best players, Brendan Murphy, so it wouldn’t be the last they saw of Mundelein if they wanted to achieve their state dreams. They had confidence on their side though, they managed collect their fair share of hits off Murphy before.

But it just wasn’t their year.

The Wildcats met Murphy’s Mustangs once again in the playoffs, this time after both teams won their regionals, in the sectional semis and Murphy held their typically dynamic offense to just four hits. Murphy rubbed salt in the Wildcats’ wounds, too, after he helped prevent the completion of a Wildcats seventh-inning comeback, getting out of a jam that left the game-tying run stranded at third base.

It doesn’t make it any easier, but the 2017 season was tremendously successful for the Wildcats. They won 30 games behind a mostly inexperienced group, not ranked in last year’s edition of the Preseason Power 25. This year, they return a great squad of seniors, led by the aforementioned Gowens and Fields.

Those two lead a rotation that’s relatively green at the varsity level. But any staff led by two real aces won’t necessarily need that much depth behind it, especially once the playoffs roll around.