Prep baseball: Hinckley-Big outlasts Indian Creek in slugfest to stay perfect in Little Ten

SHABBONA – With the bases loaded in a tie game, Indian Creek coach Kevin Poterek wanted no part of Hinckley-Big Rock slugger Martin Ledbetter, who in his first two at-bats had a single and a no-doubter home run.

No stranger to seeing Ledbetter intentionally walked with the bases loaded, Jacob Orin made sure the Royals kept on scoring.

Orin had a hit and two RBIs in plate appearances after the Timberwolves walked Ledbetter intentionally, and the Royals hung on for an 11-10 win Monday to stay undefeated in Little Ten Conference play.

“Every single time I’m just ready to hit,” Orin said. “I’m trying to get the hit, trying to move runners over, trying to get them in.”

Hinckley-Big Rock coach Matthew Olsen said Ledbetter has been intentionally walked with the bases loaded about six times this year. In the second inning Monday, Ledbetter launched a moonshot in the top of the second, part of a four-run inning that gave the Royals (12-7, 8-0 LTC) a 5-3 lead.

The Timberwolves (3-14, 3-4) scored four in the bottom of the second, capped by Kason Murry’s two-run single for a 7-5 lead after two. With two outs in the top of the third and McKinley Shelton on second, Poterek called for the intentional walk of Ledbetter for the first of four times in the game.

Orin singled him home, then Ledbetter scored on an error.

With the fences in at 300 feet to all fields because of construction at the high school, Poterek said he pretty much knew he wasn’t going to pitch to Ledbetter again.

“We felt we could survive one run more than four runs at that point,” Poterek said. “It’s just a whole different situation with the energy level if he hits a grand slam in that situation. We’re handcuffed on the fence distance, and it doesn’t take much for him to do that. So I played the odds there, and it bit us a little but not too bad. I told one of the players, I’ve given up [four] walks, and you guys have walked like 100. If anyone questions it, I knew what I was doing, and I almost got away with it.”

The game was tied at 7 in the top of the fourth when Badal walked to start the frame, then with two outs Shelton singled and Skyler Janeski was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Ledbetter was issued his second intentional walk, then Orin was hit by a pitch to push the H-BR cushion to 9-7.

That also chased Indian Creek starter Jacob Coulter, who reached the pitch count in part because of six walks, four of which were not intentional.

Olsen said Orin has been in the situation all year protecting Ledbetter in the lineup and keeps coming through.

“Jacob’s been a big clutch hitter for us all year,” Olsen said of Orin’s performance. “He’s neck-and-neck battling in the RBI lead with Martin. And Martin’s gotten a few just by walks. He’s come up multiple times this year with the bases loaded, and I bet you he has at least six RBIs from intentional walks with the bases loaded.”

In the bottom of the fourth, Giovanni Data had his second RBI single of the day to cut the H-BR lead to 9-8, but in the top of the fifth three walks, a hit batter and an error led to two more runs and an 11-8 lead.

That proved pivotal, as in the bottom of the seventh off reliever Joe Bazan, Jakob McNally hit a two-run homer to dead center with no one out. But Bazan escaped the jam by getting the next three hitters in order.

“The way our season has gone, clawing back into the game was big for us,” Poterek said. “Hit batters, walks and errors have hurt us all year but we have ourselves a chance. We needed this to get back in the running for conference. But the fact we didn’t give up means a lot as we gear up for regionals.”

Not counting the intentional walks, Coulter and IC reliever McNally walked seven batters in the game. McNally had two hits, two runs and two RBIs while Coulter had a hit and scored twice. Murry, Data and Dominik Nelson had two hits each for Indian Creek.

For the Royals, Orin and Shelton had two hits each while Josh Badal drew three walks and had a double. Luke Badal got the win, allowing eight runs (seven earned) in six innings. He walked three, struck out one and allowed 11 hits.

The series concludes Tuesday at Hinckley with the Royals looking to maintain not only their perfect conference record but sole possession of first place.

“Our goal this year was to make sure our conference record was taken care of,” Olsen said after the Royals were co-champs last year with Somonauk even though they swept the Bobcats. “We’ve saved our best pitching for conference. Winning conference is our first goal and we’ll go from there.”