Baseball notes: Yorkville’s Kameron Yearsley, coming off monster junior year, catching fire once again

Kameron Yearsley set a bar with his junior season that was close to impossible to match, but don’t tell the Yorkville senior that.

That burning desire, though, seemed to cool his bat over the winter.

“I was struggling mentally at the beginning of winter practices, at open gym,” Yearsley said. “I was like ‘Coach, I want to do it again so bad.’ He was like ‘Kam, what you did was amazing and you can try to do it again but the reality is it’s hard to do’ and I said to him, ‘I might do it again.’ It’s crazy to think about it that way.”

Crazy to think he might do it again.

After struggling mightily, physically and mentally, over the winter, Yearsley’s bat has caught fire again this spring. Through 18 games, Yearsley is batting .492 with a .544 on-base percentage and 1.068 slugging, with six doubles, two triples, eight homers, 34 RBIs and 20 runs scored.

This, coming off a monster junior year when the sweet-swinging lefty batted .526 with 10 doubles, two triples, six homers, 38 RBIs and 33 runs scored.

He’s really turned it on in the last week.

In 18 plate appearances last week, Yearsley hit .667 with a .722 on-base percentage, with two doubles, three homers and 16 RBIs and nine runs scored.

“The one difference between last and this year is the last few weeks the power is starting to come more frequently,” Yorkville coach Tom Cerven said. “He is using more of the field as well. He spent a lot of time last year going the other way, letting the ball travel deep and spoiling a lot of pitches. This year he’s doing more damage to the pull side and as a result his power numbers are more this year than last year.”

Powerful and compact, Yearsley’s approach has always been to shoot for the left-center gap, and hit the ball hard the opposite way. He stands on top of the plate, daring pitchers to come inside with a fastball while providing great plate coverage on the outer half.

“I want to say my brother, he really focused me on that other side and so did my coaches. You don’t see a lot of high school pitchers throw inside fastballs or dot the inside,” Yearsley said. “There are only a certain amount of pitchers that can locate in. If they do, it’s a tip of the cap, you beat me inside if they do beat me inside.”

Cerven said the Yorkville coaches saw even as a sophomore Yearsley’s ability to hit and hit with power. He has only got bigger and stronger since.

“Even when he does miss the ball and doesn’t hit it on the barrel he has so much power and backspin it still finds a way to get to a place that people can’t get to it,” Cerven said. “Right now he is using the whole field more than anything. Where pitchers may have been able to get to a soft spot in his swing before, his ability to cover off any area has made him a tougher out. He’s been able to get to the pull side more and shown more power.”

As much as pitchers may wish to pitch around Yearsley, his teammates hitting in front of him have made it much harder.

Jackson Roberts has a .421 on-base percentage, Danny Rodriguez a .534 and Nate Harris a .514 hitting in front of Yearsley.

“It’s the same as last year,” Yearsley said. “We had guys in scoring position a lot. I’m glad a lot of those guys are having a heck of a year and glad to be a part of it. It feels good when they get on base. I like the pressure when they intentionally walk Nate.”

With a lineup led by Yearsley and Harris, Yorkville is sitting at 12-7 despite being without three of its top four pitchers, and working on its fifth catcher.

“That is just the character our team has, something you don’t see in a lot of teams,” Yearsley said. “I’m sorry that those guys got hurt, but I’m glad that we’re hanging in there.”

Plano, Sandwich atop KRC

It didn’t take long for Plano and Sandwich to make an impression on the Kishwaukee River Conference race.

Sandwich is currently 6-1 in league games and in first place, with Plano a game back in the loss column at 7-2 followed by Marengo (8-3) and Richmond-Burton (7-4).

Plano is coming off a wild one Monday, a 13-12 win over Harvard. The Reapers led in the game 10-2, but needed reliever Jason Phillips to get out of bases-loaded jams in the sixth and seventh innings to preserve the one-run win.

“Definitely a nervous one for us,” Plano coach Nate Hill said. “We are hitting that point in the conference season where the new teams we’re facing are gunning for us a little bit. It’s been a fun ride, but a trying time for us as we try to find some consistency.”

The Reapers (15-7) recently ripped off an eight-game winning streak that coincided with the start of the conference season. Plano’s offense is putting up a tick over nine runs per game, led by senior Kaden Aguirre and Phillips, a sophomore. Aguirre is batting .516 with 13 extra-base hits, 26 runs scored and 25 RBIs. Phillips is hitting .515 with 10 extra-base hits, 25 runs scored and 33 RBIs. Josh Stellwagen is batting .453 and Jake Decker .386.

“Offensively, I like where we are at,” Hill said. “Top to bottom we have guys that can do things that make it hard on teams. Our top six or seven hitters are tough outs, can swing it with a little pop in their bat, play small ball at the bottom of the order.

“Kaden and Jason, they are doing things back to back at the top of the lineup, which is a challenge on teams. I do like where we are at. The guys have bought in.”

Around the horn

Oswego East’s Jackson Petsche has been swinging a hot bat. Petsche in the past week is 5 for 7 with three doubles, six RBIs and has walked twice.