2 weeks Ago By The State Journal-Register
Sometimes there’s a sibling rivalry, but for the most part, Tori Elvidge and Jonah Elvidge love and respect each other. The Raymond Lincolnwood No. 1 pitchers — Jonah, a senior, for the Lancers’ baseball team, and Tori, a sophomore on the Lincolnwood softball team — are providing the two spring sports in this tiny Montgomery County school with plenty of talent, spirit and drive.
They also provide the other with support, encouragement and cheers. “We both support each other really well, but I think secretly, deep down, we both want to be a little better than the other one,” Jonah said. “That’s just how it is and how we were raised.
” Not that they don’t try and one-up the other at the same time. “We always support each other, watch each other’s stats, but I think there is some competition,” Tori said before adding with a laugh, “I think I’ve got him in pitching — not hitting so much.” Lincolnwood baseball coach Josh Stone sees all the Lancers’ athletes as the athletic director.
Not only has Jonah been a three-sport athlete for four years — golf, basketball and baseball — but Tori is making her mark in basketball and softball. “A lot of coaches are like, ‘Elvidge is still there? He didn’t graduate?’ This is his final year,” Stone said. “I’m sure a lot of softball coaches are like, ‘There’s another Elvidge? Where did this one come from?’ They constantly work and I bet (other coaches) are so tired of seeing Elvidge, Elvidge, Elvidge.
“Tori will probably score 1,000 points (in basketball) and if she doesn’t, she’ll have 1,000 rebounds for sure. Jonah had 100 hits in his career last year and she probably already has 1,000 strikeouts. There’s so many big numbers in that house because they work at it all the time, they compete against each other and they’re also just great kids.
” More: Here are 32 area baseball players to watch in the 2025 high school seasonMore: Top baseball performers: Chatham Glenwood's Grady Mueller delivers walk-off hitAn Elvidge for all seasons As soon as golf season ends, Jonah picks up a basketball and gets to work. In his final season on the boys basketball team, he averaged 11.2 points, 2.
6 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 0.8 assists per game and surpassed the 1,000-career point mark for the 14-16 Lancers.
“Basketball had always been a struggle for me until late, but baseball’s always been my first love,” Jonah said. However, it’s baseball where Jonah has had the biggest impact. And last season was when Stone saw it all come together.
“Jonah has been a four-year starter ...
but junior year, it just kind of fell into place,” Stone said. “He’s the most competitive kid you’ll meet. He won’t lose throwing trash in a basket.
He won’t; he doesn’t know how to lose, he refuses to lose. “He hit the six hole 80,000 times last year between third and shortstop. He just had that swing working for him last year.
” Jonah added, “I like to say I’m a hard-working guy who does what he can for the team.” He led the Lancers hitters last year with a .519 average (54-for-104) with 38 RBIs.
Through April 17, he was hitting .283 (13-for-46) and was 2-1 in four starts with a 4.88 ERA, but had an impressive strikeout-to-walk rate with 26 strikeouts and eight walks.
Jonah will pitch next year at Harper College in Palatine, a community in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. The difference between his community of Raymond of about 1,000, and the Chicago metro area with a population over 9 million will be a vast difference, but Elvidge is excited. “I had a really good year last year,” Jonah said.
“I always wanted to play baseball at the next level and then I got the opportunity from coach (Dominic) Milano at Harper. I’m really excited for the opportunity and to keep playing baseball at the next level. “I live on a farm right now, so it’s going to be a culture shock.
I’ll get over it, but I’ll definitely miss my family and my friends.” Tori does the work Lincolnwood softball coach Matt Myers could go on forever singing Tori’s praises. “She’s an all-around athlete, first of all.
To be a pitcher, you’ve got to be mentally tough, and she is mentally tough,” Myers said. “She’s really got a bright future ahead of her. If she wants to play college ball, I think she’s got the opportunity.
“She puts the team on her back and she carries us. She does a good job of it; it doesn’t seem to bother her any. She wants the ball, she’s going to get the ball.
Every team needs somebody like that; I wish I had more of her.” Elvidge had a .250 average with three homers and 10 RBIs as a freshman and, as part of a three-pitcher rotation, went 3-6 with a 4.
97 ERA and 66 strikeouts. This year, she's upped her batting average to .273 and had one homer and eight RBIs through 17 games.
Taryn Clarke was hurt in the Lancers' first game of the season, so Elvidge is pitching most of the innings and is 7-8 with a 2.99 ERA and has fanned 153 batters. Tori’s softball days grew out of time as a young child playing baseball with her brother.
Not only was she playing with boys and girls in t-ball and with a pitching machine, but she played up in age.“I always watched my brother growing up playing,” Tori said. “He plays travel, kind of watching him play, I learned to know the game and love the game and wanted to do it myself.
“Watching him pitch a lot inspired me to want to do it. I started pitching, and in fifth grade, I started going to lessons. (After COVID), I got back into lessons, and I still go all the time.
”After her successful freshman campaign, Tori knew she had more work in front of her. “I’ve got some new pitches, some new spins to throw, so that definitely helps against better-hitting teams,” Tori said. “But I think hitting is my most improved part of softball.
” She’s also comfortable emerging from her brother’s shadow. “Jonah definitely started out the recognition, but now I think I’ve got a name for myself a little bit and not, ‘Jonah’s little sister,’” Tori said. Their days together will be less common starting in the fall with Jonah more than four hours from home, but that can’t erase their memories together.
“Almost every day in the summer, we were out in the front yard playing catch, working on pitching,” Jonah said. “We did that for a really long time, as long as we can remember, until we got older and we got more sports to take care of.” Stone smiled at the siblings’ natural instincts to always want to be the best.
“I’m sure they compete at home over everything as well because they’re two of the most competitive kids I know,” Stone said.Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.
com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR. This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA baseball, softball: Elvidge siblings put Lincolnwood teams on backs.
