Lake Zurich junior Owen Strahl’s plate appearances this season have become must-see viewing.
Look away for only a moment, however, and one could miss it.
“When I go up there, I’m really looking first pitch for anything that’s in my zone,” Strahl said. “I prefer fastballs. But honestly, if I see a nice little off-speed drop in there, I’m swinging.”
So Strahl, a right fielder who finished the regular season batting .455 with seven home runs, 31 RBIs and a grand total of three walks, kept swinging during 11th-seeded Lake Zurich’s 13-0 victory against seventh-seeded Highland Park in the Class 4A Libertyville Regional semifinals on Thursday.
Strahl had two hits, a leadoff triple on the second pitch of the at-bat and then an RBI single, during a five-run fifth inning as the Bears (18-11) prevailed in five and advanced to play second-seeded Libertyville in the regional final at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“The wind’s blowing out, and he hit that ball pretty hard to right,” Lake Zurich coach Scott DeCaprio said of Strahl’s first hit in the fifth. “But he flew out of the box and made it into a triple. That’s what you want as a coach, a guy who will hit it and run really hard.”
The Bears had already blown the game open with an eight-run fourth inning against Illinois recruit Luke Weber. Strahl didn’t have one of the seven hits during that barrage. Riley O’Donnell and Ryan Kondrad each had two hits in the frame to back Josh Marzec, who allowed just two infield singles against the Giants (20-14).
But Strahl continued to hack away.
“He’s got that ‘wow’ potential of seeing whether he’s going to hit it out,” DeCaprio said. “Our guys get amped up when he’s up to bat because you want to see what’s going to happen. He hits it hard and doesn’t get cheated. I wouldn’t want to pitch to him.”
Strahl, who went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI, even puts on a show during practices. Lake Zurich’s football stadium is adjacent to the baseball field, and reaching the stadium’s bleachers beyond right-center is quite a poke, regardless of weather conditions. With the wind blowing out strongly during a workout Wednesday, DeCaprio watched several players admire some of the shots they were putting out there.
But then Strahl batted.
“He hit it over the bleachers three times, which our coaches say has never happened,” Marzec said. “The power off that bat is unreal, and the contact rate and plate discipline that he has is really good too.”
So it might be surprising to know Strahl figures he didn’t even hit .300 on the junior varsity team last season. Something obviously has clicked for him.
“I couldn’t find the barrel against the slow pitchers,” he said. “I kind of slowed myself down, fixed some stuff with my swing and worked a little bit in the outfield, and it came together from there. About midway through this season, I started cooking.”
But Strahl didn’t know exactly how hot he got until he looked at the team’s statistics during the last two weeks of the regular season. He understood he was doing well and didn’t need the validation.
“I started hearing about it from coaches, parents and others,” Strahl said. “I didn’t even know I was batting .500 in conference until the week of all-conference selections. Now I want to live up to the hype. I don’t want to be that guy that lets people down.”
Strahl also knows he doesn’t have to do it alone.
“I’ve looked up to a lot of the guys in the lineup since my freshman year,” he said. “I’ve been in a really good spot, and it makes me really happy that there are guys that have my back in the lineup and that no matter what I do, we’re going to come up hitting. We’re just a hitting team.”
But Strahl’s presence in that lineup definitely makes a difference.
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.
