A new attitude
Even keel helps Milroy elevate his game
All it took was a strikeout, a brief act of failure during a long baseball season, for Marmion Academy coach Dave Rakow to know Matt Milroy had arrived as a varsity player.
It wasn't a special strikeout. It wasn't Casey at the Bat. Milroy simply took his medicine on a called punchout and walked back to the dugout.
(Craig Watson/Beacon News)
"We weren't really sure how he was going to react to bumps in the road," said Rakow, who coached the junior center fielder on Marmion's lower levels. "He ended up getting a hit his next at-bat. That attitude (surprised us), his maturity as an athlete, that if something bad happens he doesn't let it affect him the rest of that game or into the next game."
That attitude translated to a monster season offensively, which was augmented by a stellar season on the mound as the Cadets went 19-9 overall and won a regional title for the first time in school history.
Milroy, the 2008 Beacon News Baseball Player of the Year, hit .467 with seven home runs and 41 RBIs and a .900 slugging percentage.
"I just tried to go out and do whatever I've done my whole life -- watch the ball all the way in and take it to left field," Milroy said. "A lot of credit goes to my teammates for getting on base and making the pitcher want to throw strikes more."
He also hit .595 with runners in scoring position and 22 of his 42 hits were extra-base hits.
"We knew he had the potential to do it coming into the season because he had a really strong sophomore season, but that doesn't always equate to being a strong junior player," Rakow said. "But he surpassed any expectations we had for him this year, that's for sure."
On the mound, he was a bit raw, a "thrower" rather than a pitcher by his own admission. That said, the all-Suburban Catholic Conference selection held opponents to a .198 average and struck out an incredible 77 batters over 52.1 innings. He finished 3-3 with a 3.75 ERA.
"My success has to do with my catcher, Robert Reder," Milroy said. "He calmed me down all the time when I would act up and get mad at myself on the mound. He called great games and made sure I was under control."
One can point to his three home run performance in the sectional semifinal contest against Belvidere North as a defining moment, but to truly capture Milroy's impact at the plate, look no further than the Cadets' sectional final loss to Rock Falls.
Heading in, the Rockets knew two things about Milroy from their scouting reports.
"That he was that good," said Rock Falls coach Donnie Chappell.
And?
"Don't pitch to him."
In the seventh inning, Marmion had a runner on second with two out and Reder was working on a 3-1 count. He popped out to end the threat -- but what if he reached to bring Milroy to the dish?
"We were gonna walk him to load the bases and face the next hitter," Chappell said. "We weren't gonna pitch to him."
A workaholic in the weight room, don't expect Milroy to rest on one successful year. This offseason he will decide whether to hone his craft as a pitcher, as he will likely have to make a decision to either pursue that path beyond high school or not.
"That's definitely something I'm going to need to talk to my coaches about," he said. "I don't really know right now. I would be glad to play either in college or professionally, but right now I haven't really made a decision.
"I just want to keep playing and see how it goes."
Baseball Player of the Year
