Vote for the southwestern Illinois Baseball Player of the Week April 4-9
Vote for the Belleville News-Democrat’s Baseball Prep of the Week. Poll closes at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, April 14. To vote again, hit refresh.
Want to nominate an athlete? The BND Athlete of the Week highlights high school varsity softball and baseball players who put in outstanding performances from the week prior to the opening of the poll. If you want to suggest someone to be included, send an email to Garen Vartanian at gvartanian@bnd.com.
Please include the athlete’s name, school, class, position, and applicable game performance statistics. Coaches must be willing to verify information.
To be clear, this poll is not scientific. In fact, we invite you to vote as many times as you want. It’s all for fun, BND readers. People also may submit the same athlete from week to week.
We are planning to post the results later this week after the poll closes.
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Here are this week’s nominees:
Eli Hoerner, Freeburg High School, senior, SS. Hoerner batted .545 last week with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run and 7 RBI. On the season, Horner is hitting .558 with 3 homers and 27 RBI.
- Connor Lindsey, O’Fallon High School, senior, DH/C. Lindsey went 11-for-14 last week with 10 runs scored, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs, 20 RBI, 2 HPB and 1 stolen base in helping the Panthers to a 4-0 record. On the season, Lindsey entered this week batting .486 with 5 home runs and 27 RBI.
Joseph Mendiola, Belleville East High School, junior, INF/P. Mendiola went 3-for-4 against Waterloo last week with 3 doubles. On the season, Mendiola is batting .500 with 5 doubles, 3 triples and 12 RBI.
John Rea, Triad High School, senior, 2B. Rea went 7-for-11 last week with 2 home runs, 2 triples and 1 double. On the season, Rea is batting .340 with 1 homer and 15 RBI.
James Vambaketes, Alton High School, senior, CF. Vambaketes went 7-for-12 last week in the lead-off spot with 1 double, 3 runs scored, 2 RBI, 4 walks and 3 stolen bases. On the season, Vambaketes is batting .367 with 6 stolen bases, 8 runs scored and 3 RBI.
Alex Wright, Granite City High School, senior, P/INF. Wright recently collected 3 hits and 3 RBI while drawing 2 walks and scoring 2 runs. Additionally, he pitched 6 1/3 innings while striking out 11 (including 6 looking) and allowing just 2 hits and 1 run in earning the win. Wright is hitting .375 this spring and has one win on the mound.
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.