Brewers believe their offense will be better in 2024
Belvidere North has some new faces in the dugout, and some new ones on the softball diamond, and they’re confident it’s going to have a positive affect in the standings.
Although they are off to just a 2-4 start, and their No. 1 pitcher is out for the season, there are already signs that this could once again be a team to reckon with in the NIC-10 — as soon as this year.
“The biggest goal we’re working towards is to help make this a school that the kids are proud to play for,” new Blue Thunder head coach Jason Yakey said. “I had a vision for this program, and that was to work hard to make this something the kids will be excited to come play for. It’s a great school and a great program, and we just want to make it the best it can be.”
Yakey and his wife JoAnn started the Midwest Aftershock Fastpitch Softball Organization, now a 12-team travel program, back in 2018. Last year their daughters Jalyn, then a senior, and twins Jenna and Josie, then sophomores, played at Auburn.
Jalyn now plays at Briar Cliff University
in Sioux City, Iowa. Jenna and Josie are now entrenched in Coach Jason Yakey’s new team over at Belvidere North.
“It’s actually been a really fun and exciting transition,” said Josie, who mans centerfield for the Blue Thunder this season. Jenna is playing second base. “We are a team with a lot of speed, we play great defense, and we can hit, a ton.
This is a pretty strong team, already.”
North lost four starting seniors last year: Alex Blair, Marissa Long, Katie Norgard and Rylee Koeller.
And junior pitcher Alexa Norgard tore her ACL during the basketball season, and is out for the year. So fresh
PHOENIX – The Milwaukee Brewers didn’t have a high-octane offense a year ago, but they also didn’t need it to be.
When the 2024 regular season kicks off this week in New York, the script will be different. They will need to beat teams with their offense.
“We have to beat people in different ways,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We can’t just beat them one way. It’s not a year that we’re going to be able to not score runs. We have to score runs. We know that with the inexperience we have with our pitching staff, inexperience all around, we’re going to have to try to scrape and claw and beat people in different ways.”
Nothing ahead of a 162-game season is for certain, but this much seems pretty close to it. If the Brewers post similar offensive numbers to last year, it’s probably not going to go well.
Ranking in the bottom third of baseball in average, slugging, OPS, exit velocity and hard-hit rate without the same pitchers as last year to make up for it, would create quite the challenge.
“I remember answering a lot of questions about the offense last year,” leftfielder Christian Yelich said.
Perhaps similar questions will be asked after games of the pitching this year. And even if the Brewers pitching staff exceeds expectations, it’s going to be challenging to live up to last year’s group, which was tied for the best earned run average in baseball.
Throughout spring, Murphy didn’t shy away from the difficulty level of the task ahead without Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff, and with Devin Williams out for at least two months.
That puts much of the onus on the offense in 2024.
“Last year it felt like collectively it wasn’t the best year for us as an offense,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “That’s what’s driving us to get better, what’s motivating us to set the bar a little higher because we know we need it this year.”
Can Brewers offense be better?
If Adames can return to a level similar to his past production in his final year before free agency, Milwaukee has arguably as good a top four as any lineup in the division with Adames, Yelich, William Contreras and Rhys Hoskins.
Hoskins is precisely the type of hitter the Brewers have needed to add for the past five or so years. There’s no real weakness in his offensive profile; he has above-average plate discipline, he
Jay Taft
man Ava Morris has been thrust into the No. 1 pitcher’s role, and senior Abigail Reza will play a much bigger role than originally planned.
But with leadership from senior returners McKenzie Culvey at shortstop and McKenna Morrill at catcher — as well as the addition of the Yakey twins — they are already beginning to come around.
“When you have a group of girls who are just a bunch of hard workers, and people who are dedicated to the sport, you can work through some things like injuries,” said Culvey, who is already hitting .540 with a .670 slugging percentage. “And this group has a great team dynamic. Everybody is full of energy, and positive, and we just seem to click.”
Two years ago Belvidere North (21-8) had the longest postseason of any NIC-10 team, rolling into the sectional final, with Jalyn Yakey and Culvey earning All-State honors in Class 3A at the end of it all.
But North went just 11-14 last year and didn’t make it out of regionals.
This year, with a new head coach and a bunch of new assistants, including former Harlem and Seton Hall pitching star Misty Beaver, they all believe they can get back to long, drawn-out postseason runs.
“It’s all softball all the time for everybody on this team, and we’re all so focused,” Jenna said. “We all think we can win a regional this year, and just keep it going. It’s going to be fun, though.”
The Blue Thunder will have five nonconference games next week, and will then kick off NIC-10 play with three games the following week. They will then take on one of their toughest NIC-10 rivals, Harlem, on April 15, and another, Auburn, on April 18. Games against two of the other NIC-10 top dogs, Hononegah (April 22) and Freeport (April 24), are right around the corner as well.
But this team has come around quickly, and feels good about the longhaul.
“Our team strength at this point is definitely chemistry,” Jason Yakey said. “This group has already seemed to form a bond and are playing like they have been together for a long time. All the girls seem to understand their roles, and are working hard every practice.”
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years altogether.