Baseball: Kyle Farrell, Wilmington stay hot in topping Streator

STREATOR – Wilmington continued to play overall solid baseball during Tuesday’s Illinois Central Eight Conference game against Streator.

Behind a shutout pitching performance from junior right-hander Kyle Farrell, a five-run top of the first and 11 total hits, the Wildcats defeated the Bulldogs 12-0 in six innings at SHS Athletic Fields.

It was the 19th consecutive victory for Wilmington (21-1, 13-0 ICE), which wrapped up the conference title in Monday’s home win over Streator.

Farrell scattered five hits, walked one and struck out eight in improving to 7-0 on the season and lowering his ERA to 1.10.

“I was really relying on my fastball on the outside corner today,” said Farrell after throwing his team’s seventh shutout of the year. “My goal, like in every start I have, is to just throw strikes and make the other team put the ball in play. I feel like I did a good job of that, and my defense played great behind me like they always do.

“It was also nice to go out to the mound to start the game with a five-run lead. We have so many guys that can hit the ball hard and get on base, so as a pitcher it’s nice to know that your team is going to put runs on the board. It just makes it so much easier to relax and just pitch.

“A lot of us play other sports and had pretty good seasons in them, and a lot of us have been playing sports together since we were little kids. We all know that if one of us is having a tough day, two or three other guys are going to step up. We have a ton of trust in each other and want to do well for each other.”

“They play the game of baseball the right way. They hustle and take advantage of almost every mistake an opponent makes. All around it’s just a really good group of kids that hates to lose in whatever sports they are playing in. They are just all competitors.

—  Mike Bushnell, Wilmington baseball coach on this year's squad

After the first Wildcats batter reached on an infield error off Streator starter Clay Christoff, Cade McCubbin drove in a run with a groundout before an RBI single by Farrell, an RBI fielder’s choice by Dierks Geiss, a run-scoring double by Joe Allgood and a passed ball made it 5-0.

Wilmington scored another run in the second as Brendan Moran reached on another error, went to second on a wild pitch, to third on a single by Ryan Kettman and scored on an outfield misplay.

“They’ve been playing together for a long time, and they were coached the right way at every level,” Wilmington coach Mike Bushnell said. “They play the game of baseball the right way. They hustle and take advantage of almost every mistake an opponent makes. All around it’s just a really good group of kids that hates to lose in whatever sports they are playing in. They are just all competitors.

“We had a good combination today of some pretty good hitting throughout the lineup, Kyle had another solid outing, and the defense made all the plays, including a couple tough ones, behind him. Those three things put together will give any team a pretty good chance of coming out on the winning side.”

The Wildcats then erupted for six runs in the sixth, highlighted by two-run singles by Allgood and Kettman and an RBI double by Lucas Rink.

Rink finished with three hits to lead Wilmington, with Kettman and Allgood recording two hits and two RBIs each.

Streator (11-16, 7-6) threatened twice, once in the fifth Joe Hoekstra and Blaize Bressner reaching second and third after singles, and in the sixth when Landon Muntz doubled two away and moved to third on a single. But in each situation Farrell stranded the runners with third out ground balls.

“We had a few defensive miscues, especially early and you can’t spot a team like Wilmington five runs in the very first inning,” Streator coach Beau Albert said. “They are just too good of team to give extra outs to. They can hit 1-9 through the order and [Farrell] did what we’ve seen him do for three years now, throw strikes and let his defense work.

“We lost a tough one to them [Monday], and I was hoping we could find a way to bounce back today, but it just didn’t happen. We just couldn’t get anything really going offensively. I thought Clay after the tough start settled in, but we just didn’t give him a lot of support with the gloves or the bats.”

Wilmington hosts Manteno on Thursday to wrap up conference action, while Streator is in action the same day at Pontiac.