Towards the beginning of each of the last several seasons, the United Red Storm baseball squad takes a road trip to the Chicago suburbs for a double header against Nazareth Academy and another Chicago-area squad. Nazareth won the Class 3A state title last year, going (34-7). Red Storm head coach Ryan Molek’s Dad, Rod, was an assistant coach on that squad. This season, the Road Runners are (10-0) and #1 in the state of Illinois according to the lastest poll on PrepBaseballReport.com. United played Holy Trinity in the second game of the double header. Trinity was a 2A regional winner in 2022 and is currently (7-3) on the season. United fell behind Nazareth Academy 11-2 after two innings but would battle back to only lose by one run, 15-14. In game two against Holy Trinity, the Red Storm jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the 2nd inning and led 6-4 in the 5th before falling 9-6. Besides representing themselves very well against top Illinois baseball competition, the Red Storm baseball team had another memorable experience while on the trip, getting a between-games speech from a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer. Former Limestone High School standout in the Peoria-area and 2018 first-ballot Hall of Famer, Jim Thome is currently an assistant coach at Nazareth. His son Landon is a freshman on the Road Runners roster and one of the top-rated freshman in the state of Illinois. Thome spent time with the Red Storm between games and, among other things, talked to them about growing up in the Peoria-area and his hard work getting to the top league in the baseball-world. United head coach Ryan Molek said the entire experience was one his kids will never forget.
The Red Storm bounced back from those two close losses with a win on Monday on the artificial turf field at Lenz Field in Jacksonville, beating Louisiana, Missouri 6-2. That brought the young United squad to within one game of the .500 mark at (3-4). They get back on the field on Saturday for their Lincoln Trail Conference opener at home. The Mercer County Golden Eagles come to United for a double header starting at 11am.
