Poll results: Gibault Hawks junior BND Baseball Player of the Week in southwestern IL​

Brady Biffar of Gibault Catholic High School is the winner of this week’s Belleville News-Democrat Baseball Player of the Week high school poll, as selected by readers of bnd.com.

In recent action, Biffar, a junior pitcher, thew a complete-game 7-hitter while not allowing an earned run in a 7-3 win against Jacksonville Routt in an IHSA Class 1A super-sectional game. Biffar’s performance helped send the Hawks to this weekend’s state tournament.

Biffar — who secured 29% of the votes to edge out Waterloo’s Nate Phillips (27%) and Columbia’s Brady Mathews (24%) — finished the season at 5-4 with a 2.96 earned run average while striking out 78 batters in 71 innings pitched.

In the state championship game, Biffar tossed a complete-game, 4-hit shutout in leading the Hawks to the state title. Biffar finished the postseason at 4-0 while posting 23 RBI this spring as Gibault finished 24-14.

Here were the other candidates for the week of May 22-29:

• Austin Brown, Triad High School, senior, P. Brown threw an 8-inning complete game while fanning 13 in a 1-0 wina against Highland in an IHSA Class 3A regional championship game. Brown helped the Knights improve to 26-11 heading into this weekend’s sectional semifinals.
  
  
• Ty Frierdich, Gibault Catholic High School, junior, 3B. Frierdich belted a 3-run homer in helping lead the Hawks to a 7-3 win against Jacksonville Routt in an IHSA Class A super-sectional game. The Hawks take a 22-14 record into this weekend’s state tournament.
• Brady Mathews, Columbia High School, junior, P/OF. Mathews fired a 5-hit complete game while allowing no earned runs in a 4-1 victory against Nashville in an IHSA Class 2A super-sectional contest. He also earned the save in the sectional championship game against Father McGivney. Mathews’s effort helped the Eagles improve to 33-4 and advance to this weekend’s state tournament.
• Nate Phillips, Waterloo High School, junior, P. Phillips had 3 hits along with 2 RBI while posting 5 strikeouts in a 6-5 win over Civic Memorial in an IHSA Class 3A regional semifinal game. The Bulldogs then lost in the regional championship to finish the season at 23-12.
• Jack Velino, O’Fallon High School, junior, P. Velino threw 5 innings of 1-hit ball while fanning 7 in a 5-2 win against Granite City in an IHSA Class 4A regional semifinal game. Velino then threw 2 scoreless innings in the regional championship game against Belleville West to earn the victory as the Panthers defeated the Maroons 2-1 in 8 innings and took a 25-7 record into this week’s sectional semifinal game.
• Dominic Voegele, Columbia High School, senior, P. Voegele posted 12 strikeouts in a 6-3 win against Father McGivney in an IHSA Class 2A sectional championship game. Voegele also had two hits in the game. The Eagles went on to win their super-sectional game and carry a 33-4 record into this weekend’s state tournament.

The poll ended at 8 a.m. Friday.

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.

The next poll will appear on the BND’s website — www.bnd.com — at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Please email nominations to gvartanian@bnd.com.

Previous winners: Joe Mendiola of Belleville East High School; Connor Blue of O’Fallon High School; Brady Biffar of Gibault Catholic High School; Dylan Mannino of Belleville East High School; Caeleb Copeland of Edwardsville High School; Dawson Vernier of Belleville East High School; and Daniel Darin of Gibault Catholic High School.

This story was originally published June 5, 2023 at 5:00 AM.