Bradley-Bourbonnais takes first leg of All-City action against Kankakee

BRADLEY – The Bradley-Bourbonnais baseball team may not have brought any warm temperatures back with them after their spring break trip to Alabama last week, but the Boilermakers certainly picked back up where they left off on the diamond when they returned home Monday.

In All-City action against Kankakee, the Boilers got a three-hitter on the mound from junior Liam Martin and gave him plenty of run support, topping the Kays 14-1 in five innings of action at Carley Field.

The Boilers improved to 5-2 after winning four of five games at the Gulf Shores Classic last week and are halfway to repeating their All-City title. The Kays slid to 1-5.

“We handled our business like we should,” Boilers coach Brad Schweigert said. “We put the ball in play, and that’s what you’ve gotta do, make them make a play. We put together good at-bats, we’re doing a really good job this year of running the bases and doing the little things. We’re just trying to build off of it and get better each day.”

The Boilers scored at least one run in every inning, opening with a four-run first before putting things away with a seven-run fourth. That was more than enough run support for Martin, part of the rotation as a sophomore and who is moving toward the top as a junior.

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Bradley-Bourbonnais' Liam Martin throws a pitch during a home All-City game against Kankakee Monday, March 31, 2025. (Mason Schweizer)

The 6-foot-5 Martin was efficient Monday. The only baserunner he allowed in the first three innings was Bryce Deany, who reached on an error in the first. He allowed a fourth-inning single to Bryce Arceneaux to lose his no-hitter, and the Kays were able to get on the board when Jayden Villafuerte doubled and came around to score on a Deany sacrifice fly. By then, however, the Boilermakers amassed a 14-0 lead and earned the win in five innings by the 10-run rule.

Martin finished the day allowing one earned run on three hits, a walk and eight strikeouts. After being a part of last year’s team that made a Class 4A sectional semifinal, Martin said that as several of his junior classmates join him on the varsity level this year, he’s hoping to play with a contagious confidence.

“Everyone who didn’t play last year, or even who did play last year, just look at what we did last year,” Martin said. “There’s no reason we can’t do that same thing again if we just play with confidence.”

Another returner from last year’s squad, senior Arizona commit Cody Freitas, made his presence felt Monday. He went 4 for 4 at the plate with a home run, a double, a stolen base, four RBIs and three runs scored.

As he stood on the on-deck circle before his third-inning dinger to left field, Freitas looked to the Boilermakers’ dugout, pointed to his bat and then to the left field fence. As he went to the plate, he took the first pitch he saw from Kyree Sykes, a fastball low and slightly in, and put it right where he told his teammates he would.

“I was looking first pitch fastball,” Freitas said. “When I was watching him throw to hitters, it didn’t look like [Sykes was throwing] anything else [on the first pitch], so I was like, ‘It’s probably gonna be a fastball. I’m gonna wait for the first fastball I get and attack it.‘”

Kasen Bynum also had a multihit day, going 2 for 3 with a double, a walk, a stolen base, two runs and an RBI. Former Kay Ty Alderson had a two-run single, as did Mason Shaul and Anthony Konik.

The Kays, who graduated eight seniors who started a season ago, were short-handed Monday, with injuries and eligibility taking away five new starters on this year’s team. Although Monday got away from them early, first-year head coach Nick Crowe saw the team put up a great fight at Manteno on Saturday, where the Panthers prevailed 6-5 in eight innings. And as they continue on in a busy week of six games, Crowe knows that they have an opportunity to end the week on a much higher note than it started Monday.

“The growth that me and my coaching staff have seen this year is tremendous,” Crowe said. " ... We have five starters out right now on a team with basically no returning starters. That’s something we’ve battled with, but all we can do is coach who’s here. We’re gonna try and get better, coach up whoever’s here and we’re gonna roll with what we’ve got. We’ve seen some big improvements with who we have."