Gavin Kallis, La Salle-Peru snap Sycamore’s 8-game winning streak

SYCAMORE – Gavin Kallis was like a machine on the mound for La Salle-Peru Wednesday in a 4-0 win over Sycamore.

Technically, he was better than one.

Kallis struck out nine and combined with fellow lefty Rock Radtke on a three-hit shutout.

The Spartans don’t have any left-handed pitchers. Coach Jason Cavanaugh said they set up a pitching machine to try and simulate a lefty, but it’s not close to what Kallis brought to the mound.

“We set the machine up as a left-handed pitcher, but that’s not the same thing,” Cavanaugh said. “We tried to set it up for us but it just didn’t go well today.”

Sycamore (11-5, 4-1 Interstate 8) didn’t get its first hit off Kallis until a lead-off single by Townsend to start the fourth.

He was immediately erased by a double play, one of two turned by the La Salle-Peru (9-8, 1-3) defense.

“Every time he’s taken the ball this year he’s been our No. 1,” L-P coach Matthew Glupczynski said. “He’s gone out and pounded the zone. Our defense plays really well behind him. He works fast. He attacks the zone and is able to mix in his second pitch. He does an outstanding job.”

The Cavaliers scored all of their runs in the second inning off Sycamore starter Cal Harbecke. Griffin May started things off with a double to the fence, and crossed the plate with the first run of the game on a fielder’s choice by Jackson Piecha that turned into him reaching on an error.

Adrian Arzola added an RBI double later in the frame on a blooper to left. Kaedin Bond had a sacrifice fly in the frame as well.

“It wasn’t anything crazy, outstanding home runs, stuff like that,” Glupczynski said. “It was good baseball to be able to put the ball in play, hit behind runners a little bit and move guys up.”

The Cavaliers had four of their five hits in the inning and Sycamore committed three of its five errors in the frame.

“You can’t have all your misplays in the same inning,” Cavanaugh said. “That’s what happened today.”

After the second, Harbecke allowed only two more runners to reach, both on errors. He allowed four runs, two earned, in six innings. He allowed five hits, struck out six and didn’t allow a walk.

Glupczynski said he liked his team’s approach at the plate on the first pitch. After the game, he said he talked with the team about improving its approach when ahead in the count.

“We hit [first-pitch] line drives, a lot of balls that hung up for the outfielders,” Glupczynski said. “But when we were up in counts ... our swings, we got too antsy, popping balls up and things like that. Those are the counts you want to line the ball off.”

The only walk of the game was issued by Kallis to Tyler Lojko leading off the bottom of the first. He allowed three hits in six innings.

The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Spartans and was the second time they were shut out this year. The teams meet Thursday in La Salle for the conclusion of the three-game series.

“We’ll see what we’re made of,” Cavanaugh said. “It looks to be two pretty evenly matched teams so far and we’ll see what our guys bring in Game 3.”