These Titans can swing | Glenwood shows off offense in win over Pawnee
CHATHAM — It’s the final go-around for a tight band of Chatham Glenwood seniors, many of whom have gone deep into the state playoffs in various sports together. No matter what, the memories will last a lifetime; the bonds forged by youngsters coming of age in formative years forever there.
Going out with a Class 3A state baseball championship trophy? That would be the dream for Titans seniors such as Colten Knoedler, Grady Mueller, Michael Lucas, Dylan Huff, and others. For a team that wasn’t supposed to be as good as last year, such an aspiration doesn’t seem to be as much of a pipe dream anymore.
The Titans of recent years have been known as a “pitcher’s school”, with stars such as Major Leaguer Reid Detmers, his younger brother, Parker, Phil Maton and 2025 graduate and MLB prospect, Cam Appenzeller.
The 2026 Titans, however, can swing the bats. That much was evident in Saturday’s 11-1 victory over Class 1A Pawnee at Community Park, a game that finished in 4 ½ innings with the 10-run mercy rule.
No home runs were hit, but there were many drives that fell in on warning tracks, as the Titans gave small-school Pawnee a lesson in power. Huff, the Titans’ No. 1 pitcher who will play at the University of Toledo this fall, contributed to the rout with one hit and two runs scored. He took the day off from pitching and acknowledged that he and his teammates took it somewhat personally from preseason pundits who said the Titans would fall off from last year’s 20-9 team.
“We’ve always heard people kind of say that Glenwood can’t hit, that it’s really all pitchers. But we really tried focusing on (hitting) and implementing it. We started really taking a lot more swings and focusing on quality (batting practice) and quality hacks,” Huff said. “I think that really helped us and our hitting game.”
The Titans improved to 17-3 overall with the nonconference win (7-0 in Central State Eight). Head coach Casey Erickson admitted his staff spent the offseason and training period focusing more on hitting, with the loss of quality starters such as Appenzeller.
“We haven’t been known as the best hitting group the last couple of years. We made it a point this year to change that,” Erickson said. “We wanted to get our hitters more quality swings, and in the right mindset day-to-day. We built practices around offense a little bit more.”
The Titans pounded out 12 hits in their four innings of at-bats. That, despite a scoreless first inning in which Pawnee starter Gavin Greer struck out the side. Pawnee (12-7) even took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Greer scored on a squeeze bunt.
It was all Glenwood after that, though. Mueller, the team’s No. 7 hitter, went 3-for-3, as did juniors Reid Peterson and Tucker Murphy. Peterson and Murphy each drove in three runs, proving this Titans team isn’t all dependent on seniors, either. Underclassmen Dayton Travis and Cole Woodward did the pitching for the Titans, with Woodward recording the victory. They combined to allow four hits.
“I think we have some quality depth,” Erickson said. “But we obviously have a very close group of seniors.”
For Pawnee head coach Chris Hennemann, he is hoping the loss to the bigger-school Titans will be used as a good learning experience for his players.
“It’s all about learning. It doesn’t matter who we play against. We want to play the right way,” Hennemann said. “But we made some mistakes today that you can’t make against any team, no matter their size. We walked some batters and misplayed a couple of balls, and that just makes things even more of a mess when you do that.”
Adrian Dater is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at sports@sj-r.com.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA high school baseball | Glenwood makes quick work of Pawnee
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