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Baseball: Hall catching up to brother’s success at New Trier
5/26/12 Glenview New Trier's Austin Zimmerman (11) gets back to third getting Loyola's Fred Smart (26) out during the regional baseball final on Saturday, May 26th. | Dan Luedert~Sun-Times Media
Updated: July 3, 2012 11:56AM
New Trier senior Chris Hall and his older brother, Jonathan, always wanted to play baseball in college.
The younger Hall is close to joining Jonathan, who plays at Trinity University (Texas), at the next level. But the Elon College-bound catcher has work left to do as a Trevian.
Hall and Co. will face Oak Park-River Forest in the Evanston Sectional semifinals today (Thursday), after the clean-up hitter blasted a game-winning homer in the Trevians’ 2-1 victory over Loyola in a regional final on Saturday.
“It was nice to beat them,” Hall said. “Especially after we lost to them (earlier in the season).”
Hall has been a rock behind the plate in his first season as the full-time starter for the Trevians (26-10). He shared time at catcher with Tommy Blanchard a year ago.
“I definitely learned a lot from him,” Hall said. “He taught me how to control a game. He gave me some good pointers.”
Hall is three wins away from getting New Trier to the state finals for the first time since 2009, when the Trevians captured a state championship.
Jonathan Hall was a senior on that club, which beat St. Rita 4-3 for the title, and went 2-for-2 with two RBI and a run.
As a junior at Trinity, Hall started 15 games for the Tigers, who finished 37-12. The infielder batted .283 with a .389 on-base percentage.
Chris Hall also found his college of choice in the South at Elon, a Division I program in North Carolina.
“I was looking for somewhere warm,” Hall laughed. “I loved the campus.”
On Saturday, Hall extended his senior season in the bottom of the sixth inning when he belted a 2-0 pitch over the left-field fence to bring home Josh Perlmutter. After the Ramblers plated an unearned run in the first inning, senior left-hander Nick Hedge closed out the game with six scoreless innings.
“Great job,” Hall said. “He’s done that all year for us. We need to score more runs when he’s pitching.”
Hedge made sure to thank his catcher.
“He’s always so calm,” the Trevians ace said. “He’s never too high or too low. He always tells me everything is going to be all right. He really settles me down.”
Campbell Lipe was the only other Trevian to get a hit Saturday. The senior finished with two singles.
Third-seeded New Trier opened the playoffs with a 10-0 win over St. Patrick, the high school home of Trevians coach Mike Napoleon.
