Only one team ends the season with a smile.
Homewood-Flossmoor baseball wasn’t that team this spring. People in and around the Vikings’ program feel like it made a turn in 2026, but the run ended with a 6-2 loss to Lincoln-Way West in the regional championship May 30.
“I’m just really happy about the season we had, as a team. I feel like we all fought hard together. It’s so much deeper than baseball with these guys. I’ve grown up with these guys,” senior Jhames Holley said. “It’s sad that it’s over but I’m happy about the journey we went on together.”
The title game came down to capitalizing on chances. H-F left 12 runners on base. Jack Castady was picked off at third with the bases loaded to end the fourth. The bags were full with two outs again in the fifth when Zach Klyn lined out to right field.
“We knew that we would need three big hits and we didn’t get them,” Coach Marcus Rogers said. “We did not get them.”
Kamari Dawkins singled in the third inning. Christian Hudson pinch ran for him, eventually scoring on an error to give H-F its first run. Dawkins walked with the bases loaded in the fourth for the Vikings’ other score.
That was all the offense they could muster, though.
“I felt like we hit the ball pretty hard today but we just couldn’t find the right spots,” Castady said.
LWW got two in the second when Carson Paulus singled in a pair. The next big blow came in the fourth when Jackson Mansker hit a two-run home run. Nick O’Dette and Luke Tyrakowski each drove in runs later in that frame, as well.
Henry Humes started the game for the Vikings. The Northwestern signee thew 3.2 innings, striking out three and allowing two runs. Rogers said the plan to let him throw the maximum 115 pitches but the Knights were making solid contact so he pulled Humes before he went through the lineup a third time.
Cormac Saunders finished the last 2.1 frames.
“If Henry was rolling, we ride him like Sea Biscuit,” Rogers said. “(Lincoln-Way West) is a really good team over there. They were finding barrels.”
The Vikings finish 21-16, their best record in three seasons under Rogers. The class of 2026 was an important one for Rogers, in terms of setting the foundation for what he wants his program to be.
“I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to be on coach Marcus’s first varsity team here,” Holley said. “We set a pretty good tone for what we should look like as a ball club and as a school, as a program. I’m looking forward to seeing what these young guys do in the future.”
H-F expects to return some key pieces next year, including the double play duo of Mikey Watson and Ashton Jones, utility player Marcos Morales and slugging outfielder Jalen Webb. Injured first baseman Brock Hamilton should be back, as well.
Rogers said the hope is to build a team strong enough to compete in the always tough SouthWest Suburban Conference.
“We’re building this culture on grit, intensity, toughness and accountability and these guys have shown nothing but that,” Rogers said. “I think we made some strides this year.”
