Senior catcher Austin Kirnbauer is prepared for anything he might have to deal with behind the plate for Tinley Park.
As a four-year varsity football player and a three-year starter at linebacker, Kirnbauer is used to physical contact. Don’t expect him to be rattled by taking a fastball to the chest or slamming his body into the ground to block a pitch.
“I feel like being able to take all the hits in football definitely helps me behind the plate,” Kirnbauer said. “It helps me be able to get down and block balls, have balls hit me and throw my body around back there.”
Kirnbauer is a gritty, tough leader for the Titans.
He can also swing the bat, which he showed Wednesday when he had two hits and reached base five times for host Tinley Park in a wild 25-15 win in five innings over Marian Catholic.
Kirnbauer led the Titans (2-1) with three RBIs and four runs. Aiden Radtke finished with five RBIs, while Nolan Maciejewski went 4-for-4, reached base six times and scored five runs. Johnny Vasquez was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
Jonathan Trotter paced Marian Catholic (3-2), going 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Matt Gonzalez, Jonah Weathers, Mitchel Stanton and Nick Willoughby added two RBIs apiece.
Tinley Park scored 46 runs over two days, including Tuesday’s 21-2 win over Kankakee.
“We have a fun, athletic group and we have 12 seniors back,” Tinley Park coach Josh O’Shea said. “Usually here at Tinley, we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores on varsity.
“To have this group of experienced guys is making a big difference this year. We see it in the dugout. We see the guys rooting for each other.”
Kirnbauer is at the forefront of that.
“Austin is definitely a leader of our team,” O’Shea said. “He’s a great kid. I think it’s huge to have a confident kid behind the plate who the pitchers trust, the players listen to. He’s one of the tougher kids on our team, and that helps having that for your captain.
“He plays year-round, so he lives for this stuff.”
Kirnbauer said all his varsity experience over two sports is helping him guide the Titans.
“I got to learn from being a freshman on varsity for football all the way up to this year how to be a better player and how to be a better teammate,” he said.
Kirnbauer has played both football and baseball for over a decade, but he will likely have to decide soon on one sport to pursue in college.
“I’m still thinking about it,” he said. “I have a couple offers for baseball and a couple for football.
“I’m leaning a little bit more toward baseball. I feel like I’m better at it. I kind of like the environment a lot more. You get to travel and do all this fun stuff.”
On Wednesday, Marian Catholic scored six runs in the top of the first inning. Unrattled, the Titans responded with 11 in the bottom of the inning and kept their offense rolling the rest of the way.
As his team gets set for a spring break tournament next week in Alabama, Maciejewski sees plenty of good things and some bad ones happening for the Titans.
“It’s good to get our offense going, but defensively, we’ve got to get it together before we head to Alabama and play good teams,” Maciejewski said. “Otherwise, it won’t be close.”
Kirnbauer will do his best to set the tone behind the plate. He’s in his comfort zone there.
“When I was younger, I just fell in love with playing catcher,” he said. “I always wanted to put on the gear and just get back there behind the plate.
“I still love it.”
