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Future Games: Team Illinois Game 1 Recap

July 28, 2022
By Drew Locascio
Illinois Scouting Director

Team Illinois matched up against Team Pennsylvania at 12:30 pm on Thursday, the first day of game play at the 2022 PBR Future Games. Team Pennsylvania jumped out to an early lead but Team Illinois rallied back, eventually holding onto an 8-7 win to start off the event 1-0.

Illinois finally got on the board with two runs in the fourth inning and added two more in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. After a Jackson Natanek (Brother Rice, 2025) walk and Dayton Murphy (Crystal Lake South, 2024) single to lead off the fourth, Kenny Perez (De La Salle) lined a two-run single into left-center field to tie the game. In the fifth inning Nate Harris (Yorkville, 2024) singled down the left-field line and later scored on a Jimmy Janicki (Downers Grove North, 2024) line-drive, run-scoring single to center field.

2025 C/1B Enzo Infelise (Providence Catholic) added an RBI single of his own later in the frame.

Left/left outfielder, Brendan Tunink (Newman Central Catholic, 2024), who was awarded the “Big League Chew” Player of the Game, led off the sixth inning with a deep solo home run to right-center field. Tunink finished 2-for-3 on the day. Illinois would tack on three more runs in the seventh inning.

There were a number of impressive defensive plays throughout the game, but none better than Khamaree Thomas’ (Kenwood, 2024) catch on the very first pitch in the bottom of the first inning. Team Pennsylvania’s leadoff hitter jumped on a first pitch fastball and drove it deep into the left-center field gap. Thomas showed a quick first step and ranged a long way before laying out fully extending and reeling in the catch close to the left-center field warning track. The infield for Team Illinois also turned some heads, most notably Perez and Murphy who made a few tough plays look easy and routine. 

Seven arms on Team Illinois threw one inning a piece and were extremely impressive on the day as well. RHP Luke Weber (Highland Park, 2024) has a clean, athletic arm and sat 85-87 mph to set the tone in the first inning. 

2025 LHP Jack Bauer (Lincoln-Way East) has as high of a ceiling as any arm in the class and threw a high-volume of strikes while sitting 87-89 mph throughout his scoreless second inning. Bauer did not allow a hit and struck out one in his eye-opening stint.

Another arm that stood out for Team Illinois was RHP Wyatt Mammen (Lincoln, 2024). Mammen has a workhorse 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame and advanced arm strength. Mammen pounded the zone throughout with a fastball that climbed to 90.8 mph while also showing off a new cutter that worked at 86-87 mph. 

Team Illinois faces off in game two of the PBR Future Games against Team Midwest on Friday at 10:00 AM.

OTHER NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:

+ Jackson Natanek (Brother Rice): 0-for-1, 2 BB, SB, R
+ Dayton Murphy (Crystal Lake South): 2-for-3, 2 SB, R
+ Kenny Perez (De La Salle): 1-for-2, 2 RBI, SB, BB
+ Jaxon Hyde-Herrera (Putnam City West, OK): 2-for-2
+ Enzo Infelise (Providence Catholic): 1-for-1, BB, RBI

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