Local talent helping to fuel hot start for KCC baseball team

The Kankakee Community College baseball team is enjoying a strong start to the 2025 season. The Cavaliers won 15 of their first 18 games, helped in part by the contributions of players that stayed close to home after playing at area high schools.

Seven players from local high schools are on the KCC roster. Bradley-Bourbonnais has freshmen Thomas Offill and Easton Urban as well as sophomore Max Mallindine. Freshmen Clay Gadbois and Trey Blanchette both went to Kankakee while sophomores Amarion Paxton and Ben Carlile went to Central and Manteno respectively.

Paxton has been one of the team’s top hitters in his sophomore season. The outfielder leads the team with 26 hits and is hitting .394 with a .500 on-base percentage .530 slugging average. He is also 10 for 10 on stolen base attempts.

“Paxton is a monster athletically,” Shafer said. “He’s so big and strong that he can make mistakes and still hit doubles, which most guys can’t do... He’s a great outfielder, he can really run, he’s got a strong arm, so when it clicks it’s going to be impressive. I’m excited about that.”

Behind Paxton, Offill has seen the most time at the plate among local players. He’s slashing .222/.378/.309 on the season in 36 at-bats. Blanchette has been working his way into the lineup at a couple of positions this season, recording 16 at-bats across 10 games. He is making the most of those opportunities so far, slashing .375/.524/.500.

While the offense has been solid, posting a team batting average of .319 and averaging 7.9 runs per game, pitching has been where the Cavaliers have excelled this season. They rank second among NJCAA Division II teams in both team ERA at 2.74 and strikeout per nine innings at 13.53. They rank fourth with a WHIP of 1.20.

Gadbois has been a major part of that pitching success. He leads the team with an ERA of 0.59, allowing just one earned run while recording 31 strikeouts across 15.1 innings. His 18.20 strikeouts per nine innings rank third in the nation among players with 10 or more innings pitched, a category that is led by his KCC teammate Peyton Niksch.

Shafer said that he expected Gadbois to be a major factor and to continue to get even better with time.

“We had big expectations for him coming in and we really liked all the tools he was going to bring coming out of high school,” he said. “We’ve really worked on the intangibles for him, really worked on the mental side of things and making sure he has the ability to slow the game down and control what he can control on the mound”

While he isn’t among the local talent, Niksch has been putting together a stellar season. He leads the nation in strikeouts per nine innings and ranks second in walks and hits per inning pitched.

He is also one of nine pitchers to record a complete game shutout, which he did in fashion on March 2 by throwing a perfect game in the nightcap of a doubleheader against Olney Central College. He struck out 16 batters in the seven-inning gem.

“That is, to this day, probably the most dominant performance I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot of baseball,” Shafer said. “I got to just sit back and watch, almost as a fan, and it was pretty incredible to watch. They knew exactly what was coming, he was going right at them, and couldn’t do anything with it.”

With such a capable pitching staff leading the way, Shafer said he expects the team to be able to continue its hot, assuming they can stay healthy and have some timely hitting.

“We talk about pitching and defense every single day, and those are the things we think we can control,” he said. “If we can do those things well, and so far we have, then we’re going to be in every game and have the ability to win. If we can swing it, that’s kind of a bonus for us.”