Asher Pruemer named Player of the Year in All-Area baseball team

Jul. 11—In his 15th season as the St. Joseph-Ogden baseball coach, Josh Haley helped the Spartans produce a season for the ages: a 40-2 record and a Class 2A state championship. Haley also won his 500th career game this past spring as SJ-O rattled off a 22-game win streak and an 18-game win streak at two different junctures this season. The Spartans won an Illini Prairie Conference title and ...

Jul. 11—A look at the 118 area baseball players who received All-Area recognition for the 2026 season from The News-Gazette: Player Year School Trevor Ames Sr. St. Joseph-Ogden Tre Cole Sr. Champaign Central Cruz Dubois Sr. Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin Brayden Henry Sr. Unity Tyler Henry Sr. Unity Bryson Houchens Sr. St. Joseph-Ogden Bradley Jones So. Mahomet-Seymour Ryan Pipkins So. ...

Jul. 11—ST. JOSEPH — Sitting at a table inside Roch's Place on the final Monday evening in June, Asher Pruemer gives a slight grin when the question is asked. It's a topic he has pondered, at times, throughout his life when he looks up — literally — to his 6-foot-5 father, Mitch. With no clear answer for why the Pruemer family genetics have happened this way. "I don't know," Asher said when ...

Jul. 11—A two-time All-Area First team choice, the outfielder and pitcher for the Class 2A state-champion Spartans delivered a .451 average with 11 home runs and 67 RBI to go along with a .494 on-base percentage and .817 slugging percentage while stealing 21 bases. Ames, who will play at Morton College, got the ball to start the 2A state title game and threw four shutout innings, finishing the ...