Baseball

GILLESPIE SIGNS FOUR TO LETTERS OF INTENT
For Immediate Release
January 3, 2007

University of St. Francis head baseball coach Gordie Gillespie has announced the signing of four high school seniors to letters of intent to attend USF and play for the Saints.

Mark Ahern (LHP, Homewood-Flossmoor H.S./Homewood, IL), Scott Doebler (LHP, Lane Tech H.S./Chicago, IL), Tom Whelan (IF/OF, St. Rita H.S./Chicago, IL) and Erik Zehme (LHP, Sandburg H.S./Orland Park, IL) will join the Saints for the 2007-08 academic year.

Ahern lettered in baseball as a sophomore and junior and also lettered twice in cross country at Homewood-Flossmoor H.S. He has compiled a 10-4 record with a 3.40 earned run average over those two seasons. He notched a perfect 4-0 mark as a sophomore and was 6-4 as a junior last spring with 42 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 62 innings pitched.

Doebler is the top pitcher on a Lane Tech staff that has helped the Indians win a Chicago city championship. He has lettered as both a sophomore and junior and was named his team’s rookie of the year in his first varsity season.

Whelan is a three-time letterman at St. Rita and was named first-team all-tournament at the 2006 high school summer state tourney. As a junior last spring, he hit .469, made no errors defensively in the outfield and was perfect on seven stolen base attempts.

Zehme was a key component of a Sandburg squad that won its fifth straight regional title last spring.

USF finished 32-26 last spring and second in the NAIA Region VII tournament in Gillespie’s first year back at the helm of the Saints. Gillespie, college baseball’s all-time winningest coach with 1,709 victories, is entering his 21st season overall at St. Francis.