Maine South’s baseball team was hit hard by graduation after the spring season, but apparently the Hawks don’t rebuild, they just reload.

After losing a pair of pitchers, Ronnie Muck and Jesse O’Connor, that combined for 21 of their 26 wins during the spring season, Maine South could be expected to have a bit of a fall off.

That wasn’t the case in the summer state playoffs as Maine South made the Sweet 16 before falling to Palatine in the Palatine Regional of the Phil Lawler Summer Classic last Thursday.

“The leadership department is great,” Maine South coach Bill Milano said. “They’re great kids. They love baseball and are very coachable. They always listen and they’re never satisfied and those are two things that are important for good leadership.”

The Hawks had a superb run after being seeded ninth. They started the postseason with a victory over Loyola before knocking off top-seeded Notre Dame 7-4, July 20 at Notre Dame. A.J. Sus went six innings to earn the win allowing just one unearned run. He also helped his cause from the plate going 3-for-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored.

“We know if we get the pitching, everyone else gets confident and we feel like we’re going to win,” Sus said. “The pitching is the final piece of the puzzle. Most of the seniors are stepping in now and trying to follow in the footsteps on Ronnie and Jesse. We’re motivated to do as good as they did if not better.”

Up next was Niles West and the Hawks had their most dominating performance of the summer as they rolled to a 13-0 five-inning victory over the Wolves. Will Krug was flawless on the mound as he threw a no-hitter. Two walks and an error were the only blemishes in the scorebook.

“Everything was on and I felt great in the bullpen,” Krug said. “I was more consistently hitting my spot with my fast balls. My slider was moving and my changeup was working too.”

“We kept the ball low today and did a great job,” Milano said. “In my wildest dreams I didn’t think he’d come out here and throw a no-hitter. Niles West has been really scoring some runs this summer.”

Offensively, Maine South just couldn’t be stopped. A three-run first set the tone and Nick Calabrese and Bret Slager had big days at the plate contributing three RBI apiece.

“We started off hitting the ball and jumped on them early,” Krug said. “Everyone in the lineup was hitting the ball hard. Our defense was great and we made plays.”

“We’re hitting the ball great,” Sus added. “We’re all real confident at the plate and our pitching has been solid. We get ahead and don’t make many errors.”

Maine South’s playoff run came to an end the next day with a short-handed 12-3 loss to Palatine. The Hawks had to play without starters Krug, John Fabiano and Jimmy Frankos who went with the football team to Alabama for a 7-on-7 competition.

Because of football and other baseball commitments, Maine South didn’t have their full squad until the first round of the playoffs. That explains their mediocre summer regular season record and their excellence in the playoffs.

“We’re always looking for kids to play in the regular summer season but when the playoffs come around we get out full team together and we play well together,” Krug said. “I think this is the first time since 2003 that we made it this far. We hit the ball really well.

“We finished (14-12) but that’s really misleading because I never had these guys here all the time,” Milano said. “When they’re all here we can compete with anyone. But they play a lot of travel ball and have football too.”