Baseball: Simon Skroch pitching, Nate Harris power lead Yorkville past Lincoln-Way Central

YORKVILLE – Simon Skroch used an unintentional fastball location to its full advantage in his first start of the season.

As good as the Yorkville senior left-hander and Minnesota recruit is, Skroch’s self-admitted flaw might be that he misses high with his fastball. It can lead to walks, which Skroch said he’s made a priority to limit this season.

That high heat, though, was overpowering Tuesday.

Skroch struck out eight batters in four shutout innings, taking a no-hitter until that final inning of work. Kentucky commit Nate Harris provided him early offense with a two-run homer, and Yorkville went on to an 8-1 win over visiting Lincoln-Way Central.

Skroch, who struck out the side in the first and third innings, got a few swings and misses on a sharp curveball down and in, and a changeup fading away. For the most part, though, he put away Lincoln-Way Central hitters with a fastball riding high and away that Skroch can pump up into the high 80s.

“I didn’t intentionally throw it up in the zone, but it worked and I got a lot of swings and misses,” Skroch said. “I usually like to go side to side with my fastball. Usually one of my flaws is I miss high a lot. Today it was working, I wasn’t missing too high.”

Yorkville coach Tom Cerven will take this formula of pitching and power from his two Division I commits several more times this spring.

Harris’ two-run homer in the first inning staked Skroch to an early 2-0 lead, and the Foxes broke the game open with a five-run third. Skroch departed after around 60 pitches, and Kam Yearsley closed the door with two innings of shutout relief.

“You expect your big guys to produce, maybe not as quickly as they did,” Cerven said. “If nothing else, first game of the season it takes the pressure off and it allows guys to settle in and allows Simon to pitch with a lead. When Simon gets a lead, he’s as good as anyone.”

After Jaelen Veliz singled to lead off Yorkville’s half of the first, Harris worked the count full against Lincoln-Way Central starter Joseph Zietara.

And then Harris unloaded on a fastball that cleared the fence in straight center.

“Just looking for a pitch I can drive. First at-bat of the season, it gives me a lot of confidence to build on,” Harris said. “His offspeed wasn’t landing that count, I was on his fastball, he threw me one middle-middle and I did what I could to put it in play.”

Cerven noted that the bat “died a hero,” as it collapsed when Harris tried to knock the weight off it before his second at-bat.

But there is thunder behind any bat Harris swings.

“He is just so strong,” Cerven said. “Even the balls he misses, he claims he didn’t get all of the ball and it still went as far as it did. When he is calm at the plate and uses the middle of the field he is an extremely dangerous hitter.”

Even with Yearsley hitting behind him, Harris gets pitched quite selectively. He was walked twice and hit by a pitch his next three plate appearances, scoring twice. That’s fine with Harris, who decomitted from Northwestern last July and committed to Kentucky in August.

“I know I have to be selective when I’m there, that some teams might pitch around me,” Harris said. “If that gets me on base, great. I have a lot of confidence in the guys behind me that can move me around. Whatever is the greater good for the team.”

Michael Dopart’s two-run single behind Harris highlighted the five-run third, and Skroch’s day was finished after the clean fourth.

He walked a batter in the first, and was finally touched for a hit on a booming two-out double by Louisville recruit Collin Mowry in the fourth. Lincoln-Way Central hitters, though, struck out 14 times against Skroch and two relievers.

“I think we helped [Skroch] chasing up in the zone, but he lived there and commanded there,” Lincoln-Way Central coach Mitch Nowicki said. “He made us try to beat him there, and we didn’t.”

Cerven was impressed by how Skroch fared against a Lincoln-Way Central lineup with four Division I recruits and seven total players committed to play in college.

“One of the things I like about playing the Lincoln-Ways and Lockports is they are traditionally very aggressive and they’re going to challenge our pitchers on a regular basis,” Cerven said. “At times Simon worked up and it worked to his advantage. They were being aggressive and they weren’t able to differentiate his riding fastball and pitches down.”

Lincoln-Way Central’s lone run came on James Herget’s RBI single in the fifth. Yorkville scored two runs off Knights’ errors and a third off a wild pitch.

“It’s an opportunity to see where we are at, see a good baseball team,” Nowicki said. “It was a good learning experience for us.”